


Bartending and Punishing, What a Mix They Make

by thebeastinsideusall



Series: Marvel Head Cannons and Tumblr Prompts [8]
Category: Daredevil (TV), marvel's punisher
Genre: F/M, Frank can be a great dad, Frank loved his daughter, Frank misses his babygirl, Frank needs love, Frank needs salvation, Frank saves the day, I just love Jon Bernthal, Idk what's going to happen, Jon Bernthal - Freeform, Jon Bernthal is best Punisher, Kids, Mentions of Rape, Past Abuse, Pregnant Woman, Punisher - Freeform, Punisher saves a rape victim, who doesn't?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-09-24 01:27:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 61
Words: 28,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9693776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeastinsideusall/pseuds/thebeastinsideusall
Summary: Frank saves a girl from an alleyway rape. Her own knife used against her. Thinking she's just another soul he's saved. Not thinking he'll ever see her again. Or that Matt will hunt her down for questioning. Him protectively stalking her has to stop, he's gonna get caught. Or worse, fall for her.There's blood, There's fluff, There's pups, There's angst and somehow along the way there's love. Enjoy





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Jon Bernthal is a gift from God, that is all.

1

Her feet are tired. Sore. Hours spent in the bar, tending drunk patrons. Avoiding lusty men and women alike and shutting them all down. She had too damn much to worry about right now. She needed to get home. 

There's pain on her right heel, the worn edge of her shoe finally ripping apart today and rubbing a blister on her skin. She hisses, leans her hand on the brick of a small boarded up storefront. The other tugging up her worn sock to cover the blister till she got home. 

Heavy feet sound behind her and suddenly there's pain on the side of her head and a hand clamped over her mouth to stop her cry of shock. Another hand grips her upper arm with bruising force and yanks her to the ground into the dark alleyway. 

She's stumbling to her feet, hands frantically searching for the switchblade in her coat pocket but it's gone. Her eyes going wide as the familiar blade blade is flicked open, leering eyes watching her white smirking teeth. 

"What's this? I think she was trying to protect herself."

"Can't have that, you could hurt someone with that knife pretty girl." The second man stepped closer, backing her into the corner of the alley. 

"We should reprimand her for trying to hurt someone." 

They sneered and crowded around her. Her only weapon gone. Feeling stupid for not keeping her pistol in her coat anymore. For following the laws and rules for the bar. Fuck....

"Get off me!" She screams, hands shoving her into the brick wall again. Another sharp pain on her head, vision fuzzy and eyes blinking.

Her coats ripped open, buttons flying and hands roughly pushing her clothes from her body. Tears flowing down her cheeks and a hand clamped over her mouth to hush her screams. Her own knife pressed to her throat and it's the scariest thing she's ever felt In her life with that razor sharp blade against her flesh. Threatening to flay skin with its edge. 

She tries to kick out with her knee. To fight back, anything. But that was stupid because a fist is thrown to her cheek and it nearly knocks her out. Her jaw feels like it's most likely broken and what little vision she had is fading fast. 

Then she's on the ground, crumpled form against the brick wall. Her arms winding around her stomach as she curls into the wall. There's two gunshots, heavy objects hitting the ground and then nothing for several moments. 

"Please... Don't.. I'm..." She's pleading with whoever is here now. Her vision too far gone from the concussions that she can't clearly see who it is. 

Only a tall dark figure, something white on his chest. Standing over her before stooping to pick her up, cradle her in strong arms that make her feel like as air. 

"Shit." His voice is thick and deep, husky like he doesn't talk much. "You're bleeding pretty bad."

She only whimpers softly and closes her eyes, just wanting to sleep. Sleep would be heavenly. She wouldn't feel pain in her sleep. But she's gently shaken awake and a tiny gasp leaves her throat. 

"Stay awake. Gotta stay awake darlin." 

She doesn't want to stay awake, she wants to sleep but she obeys. This man, he saved her. Somehow he'd heard her or saw them attacking her. She's not even concerned about the gunshots she heard. 

But she can't stay awake long, she's barely conscious. His heavy feet shaking her body with every step the only thing keeping her conscious right now. Her eyes close again. 

And stay closed.


	2. Chapter 2

2

She wakes up in the emergency room. Receiving a check over for her concussions and the cut on her neck from her switchblade. Groggy and feeling like she's been hit by a taco truck, she reaches out to pull the oxygen mask from her face. 

"No no keep that on honey." A nurse comes up and puts the mask back on her face, but she's got to get the words out from the tip of her tongue. 

"Man... The man.."

"What man honey? The one who did this?" She shook her head no, regretting it by the wave of nausea hitting her. 

"Saved me.."

"Honey a nurse found you on the bench outside. There was no man." She closes her eyes and let's the nurse put the mask back on. 

She knew he had been there. The proof of it the fact she was alive right now and not gang raped in an alley. She had to find him. To thank him. 

"Ma'am did you know you're pregnant?" The doctor asked and she nods. Holds her fingers up, nine weeks. "Well we gave you an ultrasound and everything seems fine." Relieved tears let loose and she grips the nurses hand gently. 

"Get some rest dear you need to stay overnight with that concussion." She shakes her head. 

"Home, I need to go home." 

"Honey..."

"At least let me call my babysitter." The nurse stills and then nods, bringing out her personal cell phone and asking for the number.


	3. Chapter 3

3

She checks herself out of the hospital two hours later. She can't leave him at home alone, he has the dogs but after tonight she's nervous. Jittery. She spends the money she doesn't have to get a cab to take her home. A duplex with cheap rent and kind older woman who ran the place. A lucky find for the single mother. 

Her hands shake as she unlocks the door. Happy booming barks sound and she's nearly toppled to the ground by the massive Doberman and pit bull greeting her. 

"Jäger! Bruce! Heel!" And they do, money well spent on obedience training for the big dogs. But their wagging bobbed tails are sweeping the floor and she smiles at their fangy faces. 

"Oh! Krista I was so worried!" Miss. Holcroft says as she comes in from the kitchen. Her landlord was also her babysitter and she hated making the elderly women stay up late like this. "I thought the nurse said you were staying overnight?"

"I'm fine, I couldn't leave you alone with my boys all night again." 

"Nonsense. You've the best behaved dogs and son I've ever come across." Krista smiles. 

"Go on home, I got it from here."

"Good night dear."

"Night." The door clicks closed and she sighs, patting the dogs furry heads before moving to the tiny bedroom at the end of the apartment. 

Batman nightlight shining in the corner. Blue comforter over a small body. Little hand poking from the sheets. Soft breaths from the sleeping boy. She leans over the bed, kisses his blonde head and tucks his hand back under the blankets. Bruce, the Doberman, comes up and lays on the bed with the little boy. She gave his ear a scratch. 

Her heads pounding, body aching. Jäger's claws clicking gently on the floor as she strips her clothes from the day. Wanting to burn them. Her coats ruined, her only winter coat. Her shirt for work is stretched and feels slimy from hands on her. 

Instead she climbs into bed, the grey pit bull jumping up and snuggling into her. Offering comfort because he can tell she's upset. 

"We got to find him boy. He saved me." She gives his ears a scratch, kisses his fuzzy muzzle and wraps an arm over him. Sleep came easily.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Saturday's she doesn't work. So she wakes up early. Makes breakfast and gets her son dressed for a day in the park. 

He's four years old. Blonde hair and blue eyed like her, with a happy toothy smile and a love of nature. He's a happy boy and she loves him with everything she's got. His names Zachary.

His father left after finding out about this pregnancy. He thought she'd been cheating and the only reason she hadn't been backhanded by his fist was because the dogs were loyal to her. They barely tolerated him. And she supposed she should have listened to their instincts. He left either way and wasn't coming back. 

"Ready baby?" She asks, clicking a chain leash on both collars before turning to tug his little coat tighter to his body. Making sure his little batman toboggan was on his head. 

"Yes!" Always so excited to go to the park. "Mommy can I walked?" He reaches for Jäger's leash and she simply gives it to him. Jäger had never once in his life pulled away while Zach had held the leash. Always protecting and obeying the little boy. 

Pit bulls are dangerous my ass. 

"Let's go then." 

The park is filled with late morning sunlight. Children playing on swings. Couples walking together. Joggers running along paths and bikes pedaled through the grass. Dogs barking in the distance but her two only perk their ears, never taking off. 

They're walking along until she finds a patch of grass, sits on the bench and takes the leash off both dogs. Watches as her son plays with them so gently. Both animals licking his cheeks and making sure he's alright if he falls back. 

"You should be in the hospital." She nearly shrieks, falling sideways on the neck to stare at the man beside her. 

He's of average height and build. Dressed in a smart dark suit with grey tie and winter coat. Ruffled dark short hair and round dark glasses on his face. 

"Who are you?" She's getting up to stand. Trying to keep eyes on both her son and the man before her. 

"Matt Murdock, I'm a lawyer." He says as if that makes any sense or reason to her. "Id like to ask you some questions about last night."

"What about it?"

"You left work late, then thirty minutes later you're checked into the emergency room with a concussion and knife wound." 

He moves to sit on the bench, and only then does she see the walking stick. He's blind. 

"Yes..."

"I'd like to know what happened to cause you injury."

"Nothing, I fell." She's snapping her fingers twice. Both dogs coming to her sides, Zach tugging onto Bruce's collar. 

She picks her son up, hefting him onto her hip and clicking both leashes onto the dogs. Their staring the man down, not making a sound but clearly signaling they were going to attack if given a command. 

"And got a knife wound? Leaving two bodies in an alleyway?" Krista stares him down only to realize he couldn't see her glare. "You had help."

"I fell."

"The man who saved you. I'm looking for him." 

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She turns and walks away, briskly walking to the street and heading straight toward home halfway across the city. Not caring she's freezing in just a sweater and hoodie. Or that people give her strange looks with her big dogs. She doesn't care. She wants to feel safe. 

So she heads home while a man in a dark ball cap and hoodie sits beside the lawyer she just left.


	5. Chapter 5

5

"Mommy! Read?" Zachary got his favorite book in his hands and though he can't read himself he tries to follow along. Krista dries her hands from the sink and she smiles down at him. 

"Sure baby." It's late at night, just about his bedtime and for once the smog of the city is clear enough to see some stars. So she's got the little lamp on beside the couch. The blinds open to see the stars over the taller buildings. 

Zach climbs into her lap. Jäger on the other end of the couch and Bruce on the dog bed by the tv. Both of them just as attentive as the little boy in her arms. 

"Okay." And she starts to read. "One batch, two batch, penny and dime..." She reads and a few pages in he's asleep. But she's not ready to take him to bed yet. 

Her fingers brush back his hair from his eyes. Tracing his soft baby skin and smiling at how beautiful he is. Her little boy. Her baby. 

Blue eyes look out toward the window, the stars are barely there now. Her hand tracing over the small numb of her stomach and she sighs. Wondering how in the hell she's supposed to raise two kids and two dogs on her own now.

The man from the park still bothered her. How he had connected her to the bodies she'd never know. There was no evidence but the buttons from her coat. No news cast talking about it. Just two more thugs downed in the city. Of course she barely watches the news, never really has time. 

She was to find the man who helped her. Thank him. And hopes he isn't in danger from helping her like he had. She's glad they're dead. And that bothers her. 

She takes Zach to bed, not noticing the dogs stayed in the living room. Their eyes looking out into the shadows of the open blinds. Not growling, but they know someone is there. When their human woman comes back to shut off the lights and close the blinds. The figure is gone and she's none the wiser to his presence as the dogs follow her to bed. 

Frank watches the light flick off, the shades drawn and curtains closed. He shouldn't be there. But he had to be sure. Had to make sure she's safe. The lifeless body of her ex lover abandoned in an alley a few streets away. 

He was drunk and had a gun. Openly shouting that he was going to get his son back and kill those stupid dogs. Frank wouldn't let that happen. 

Matt's on his ass about his work. But the daredevil leaves everything into the hands of the law. And law is corrupt so he takes it into his own hands. Protects who he can. Like this young girl who barely was old enough for her job and had four lives relying on her now. 

No, Frank didn't regret what he's done. Not if she's happy and healthy and alive.


	6. Chapter 6

6

"I don't understand." There's a police officer outside her apartment door. Telling her something she never thought would be possible.

"I know this is a shock. But i need to take you into questioning ma'am." Her ex is dead. Donny Reyes is dead. 

"Let me just.. Get my landlord to watch my son.." The nice young officer nodded and she gently closed the door. He looked nervous from the sight of her dogs. Good. 

Her landlord is there in moments telling her Zach will be fine. Krista leashed jäger and grabbed her purse. 

"Ma'am you can't..."

"He's registered as an emotional support animal." Krista raised her eyebrow and the officer relented, gesturing her forward toward the cruiser parked out front. 

The police station was like anything you'd see on television. Bustling men and women working on cases. Phones ringing. People brought in for questioning. Leaving on bail or released from the tank. Jäger didn't ever so much as utter a woof. 

She's sitting in an interrogation room. The ceiling tiles are stained from old leaks. The table is scratched and dented from years of abuse. The floors discoloured from its original hues. And her chairs cushion is duct taped on one corner. 

Her hand idly pets Jäger's blue and white head. The comfort of having him close easing her nervousness. 

Donny was dead. 

How?

Two officers came in. One male and older in age the other female and middle aged. Both sitting across from Krista and shooting glances at her pit bull. As if he would up and attack for no reason. 

"Jäger, lay." And the animal scooted down to lay beside her chair. Head perked ad waiting on another command. Calm as can be. 

"Ma'am we understand you knew Donny Reyes."

"He's my.. Was my ex I guess now."

"What was the nature of you breaking up?"

"I told him i was pregnant and he flipped his lid. Thought I had cheated on him. Just about hit me but he was too afraid of my dogs to do anything. He up and left about six weeks ago."

"You said he almost hit you. Was there any other times he may have struck at you?"

Krista reached for Jäger's head and petted him gently. "He never hit me. Not once. But I always felt like he might have if he got drunk enough."

"Did you and Donny fight a lot ma'am."

"Not really no." That's a lie. They fought constantly. Every day. Every damned day. 

"And when mister Reyes left, did he threaten you with taking your son?"

"What?" Her shocked voice is answer enough and the female officer wrote something down. "He just... He left and told me I was on my own." And she had been thankful for it. 

"That's all we have for you now ma'am. Thank you for your cooperation." Krista nodded and stood, Jäger's leash tight in her grip as she made her way to the front of the building. 

"Oh great, now I need another cab..."

Krista checked her wallet and cringed. What tips she had made the past few days were already gone. She'd have to walk home... All fifty blocks of it. Yay. 

"Well jäger, let's go home bud." The blue nose pit only wagged his bobbed tail and smiled that wide happy grin pit bulls seem to have. 

Half way home it's getting dark and Krista groans. Her feet hurt and it's an hour walk still until she can get inside her door. Jäger is vigilant beside her. Always looking up at her when she stops or slows. Always sticking to her side and never pulling on his leash. Such a good boy.

Her heart starts stuttering. She's near her work and in turn near the alley where she was assaulted last week. Jäger senses it and he leans into her leg for support and she's thankful. They hurry past the alley and cross the street. Thankful to be past it. Her free hand laying protectively over her belly.

Frank watches her from the rooftops. He's followed her for ten blocks now and nothing's happened. But he can't stop watching her. Can't make himself believe she's alright till she's inside her tiny apartment and protected by her dogs. 

The pit by her side is pure blooded and stout with muscles his breed is known for. Frank can see he's a well trained animal and has a respect and loyalty towards his owner few dogs do. 

Frank misses Max, his own pit that was euthanized when he was put in jail. Fucking government. 

Her dog catches sight of him, stops and in turn it pulls the leash he's on. The woman turns, looking up toward where jäger is pointed and blinks. 

She could have sworn... No that can't be right.. Who the hell would be up on the rooftop? 

She shrugged and tugs jäger to follow and he relents. Now glancing up at the corner of buildings and into dark alleyways. He's not growling or alerting her. So she ignores his strange behaviour. 

"Who's crazy enough to be roof hopping anyways right boy?" Jäger only glances at her and huffs.


	7. Chapter 7

7

Winter in New York is shit. Its frigidly cold. Nearly always wet. And it's the type of cold that seeps right down to your bones no matter how many layers you're wearing. 

And since her only coat was ruined beyond repair, Krista is forced to wear a second hoodie and multiple sweaters to survive the wall to work without freezing to death. 

Inside the bar is warmer, thankfully. It's not an upscale bar. It's down and dirty. With sticky wood floors and wobbly tables and stools. The mirror behind the bar itself it cracked and aged. The jukebox in the corner is older than most of the patrons. 

But her boss is nice. An older man of dark colour with laughing lines and a wide smile. He was kind and let her work when she didn't know the first thing of bartending. She was a quick study and because of it he gave her a raise within a month. It wasn't much, but everything helped. 

"How you doin tonight miss Krista?" DeShaun asked her happily from behind the bar. His hands drying tumblers and shot glasses. 

"I'm cold!" She whines good naturedly and stowed her purse under the bar in its cubby hole. 

"Where's your coat girl?" 

"It got ruined in the wash." She lied easily, didn't want her boss to worry or more questions raised. 

"You get you another one before you catch cold. Ain't good for you to be sick with littlin' on the way." He looks at her a bit worriedly. 

"I'll be fine honey. We're tough." She smiles at her boss and he relents, letting her take over the bar. 

The night goes on forever it seems. It's one of those somewhat slow nights. Where it's businessmen wanting liquid courage for a case. College kids needing a drink before an exam. Older men bored and wasting away retirement money on booze to pass the time. 

An hour before her shift ends there's a new presence behind her. So she turns and puts her hands on the rounded edge of the bar. 

"What can I...." 

It's the lawyer from the park. Dark rounded glasses fixed on her as if he can actually see her and her fingers slip slowly to the panic buzzer under the bar. Ready to push. 

"I'd like some information, but a scotch would do for now." She eyes him for a moment but makes the drink. Setting it down in front of him. 

"What do you want."

"Answers."

"I don't know anything."

"We'll see."

"Look why don't you just f..." She stops her words, cussing out a customer is one thing. A lawyer is another. And both is bad. 

"The night you 'fell' you sustained two concussions and a small knife wound. Care to explain how you managed to walk ten blocks to the nearest hospital?"

"Lucky I guess." Her arms cross and she stares done the blind man in front of her. Not likening how he popped up out of nowhere and how he made her feel nervous and a bit scared. 

"Hmm." He slides a business card toward her on the bar. She doesn't pick it up. And a twenty beside the ignored glass of scotch. A big tip. "The man who saved you isn't a good one. He's a murderer. And he likes what he does." 

"There was no man. I fell." She stated again, eyes narrowed as he stood and unfolded his cane to walk out. 

"And those two men just shot themselves in the same alley? Did you even wonder what happened to your ex?" Then he was leaving. His steps fast and sure as if he didn't even need the cane. 

Krista stood frozen for several seconds. Scenarios going through her head over and over. The fact the man who saved her was a murderer, so the lawyer says, didn't bother her. She was alive because of it. 

She shrugged off the entire ordeal. 

Working through the rest of her shift. Her tip jar looked a little lonely, just a few bills on there and some change. Cheapskates.  
The rule of thumb is order a drink give a buck tip. But none around here followed that rule much. It left her wallet looking slim and the pantry looking slimmer. 

She's out the door. On her way home. Crossing the street a block early so she wouldn't need to walk by that storefront. Her good is up to keep off some of the chill but she's still shivering and she's got blocks to go. 

Her foot catches on a crack in the old sidewalk. Her hands shoved into her hoodie pockets and she can't reach out to catch herself. This is gonna hurt. 

But she doesn't reach the ground. Her upper elbow is caught and she's being pulled back up to stand upright. Her pale blue eyes lock onto dark brown. 

"Ya'lright?" He asked. Voice thick and husky. Unused and dry. Familiar. 

"Yea, im'fine." Her voice sounds small and she hates it but he's standing right in front of her. Has to be. 

She never saw his face. But his voice she remembers. Telling her to stay awake as he carries her to the emergency room. 

"It's you isn't it?" He was turning away, body paused at her words. His hair is cropped short, nearly shaved to his skull and she can see scars scattered over his scalp. His back to her.

"Start keeping that gun on you. Bad part a town..." And then he's gone. Pulling his hood up to cover his face and his body melting into the shadows. 

How'd he know I have a gun?...


	8. Chapter 8

8

She's wearing the gun like he asked her to. It's very subtle. The shape of it inside of her jeans. But it's there. The butt of the small 9 mm pistol just barely peeking from the front seam of her jeans. Within easy reach. It eases a bit of his worry. 

Ball cap pulled low over his eyes, hood pulled up over the cap. He watches her walk the two dogs down the street. Follows at a considerable distance but always keeps her in sight. 

He's being reckless. Out in broad daylight like he is right now. But he can't stop himself. He's got this deep seated impulse to watch her. Be near her. Make sure she's okay.

Logically he knows she's fine. That night in the alley was a statistic and it's most likely never gonna happen to her again. But he can't believe that. Won't believe that. 

So he's risking being spotted. Taken in and pit back in jail or worse the electric chair. Just to watch her walk her dogs down the street, pick up some groceries and cash her pay check. Just to simply watch her. 

She's cold. Not wearing a real winter coat. And he can tell by the pinkness in her cheeks and the way she's hunched into her hoodies. Her fingers clearly look like there turning blue in the chill and her lips look chapped and dry. She needs a damn coat. 

The dogs know he's close. He can see when he gets near enough, they perk up, watch the shadows where he's hiding or look up to the rooftops where he's looking down. But they never bark or snarl, never alert their owner like they should when they're being followed. 

Like now, she's stooping to scratch the dobermans ears as she buys a newspaper from the stand by the market. The blue grey Pitt is tilting his head. Looking him right in the eyes where's he's hidden in the crowd by a restaurant and half block away. 

She notices, looks in the direction of the dogs eyes and pauses. Blue catches muddy brown and she pats her abdomen to the right, on top of the gun she's got hidden. He nods back, bill of his cap covering his full face and he vanishes into the crowd. 

She'll be fine. She'll be fine. 

So why can't he stop watching her. Silently protecting her. Basically stalking her. Why can't he just leave the poor pregnant woman alone. 

\-----

There's a knock at the door at ten o'clock. Zachary is in bed. Bruce perking up and huffing out a soft woof at the sound but otherwise he's quiet. Which in itself is a bit strange since he's always the one at the door making racket. 

There's nothing outside the peephole. So she opens the door and there's still no one there. The cold air pushes at her and she's about to close the door until jäger comes out and sniffs at a shopping bag set on her welcome mat. 

"What in the world..." She grabs the back and opens it. Inside is what looks like... It's a winter coat. The blackest black she's ever seen with silver buttons over a zipper. A fleece lined inside with what looks like rabbit hair in the hood. 

She looks out onto the darkness and can't see a thing. Looks down and sees both her dogs looking to the alley across the street. A flash of a white chest and then nothing. 

She closes the door and wonders what kind of so called murderer would buy her a winter coat.


	9. Chapter 9

9

Daycare is outrageous in costs and many single mothers like her ignore it entirely. Either finding people in their building to watch their kids or simply take them everywhere. 

Like today. Her landlady couldn't watch Zachary today because she had her family over for dinner. So she's tucking his hands into little mittens and his batman hat on his head as she grabs her two wheeled grocery cart. 

Their kitchen looked awful. Her bills were mostly paid and she was damned if her son didn't get some chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese when he wants them. 

"Come on baby." She lets him walk at fist but six blocks in and his little feet are tired so she picks him up onto her hip and keeps going. It's only a few more blocks to the little market and he can ride in the cart and munch on some grapes. 

It's later in the day, about five o'clock and because of the season that means it's getting dark out. The gun in her jeans makes her feel better but it doesn't completely squash her fears. Especially with her son near her. 

The market is mostly empty save herself and the Armenian clerk at the front of the store. Zachary is just happily gurgling and reaching for everything even though he has no clue what it is. 

Halfway through the store she feels him. Not sure how she knows it's him or how she felt him anyways. But he's there suddenly, at her elbow with his face hidden under the ball cap and hood like always. 

"Take a cab home tonight. There's gang activity nearby." He's moving away, booted feet somehow silent on the squeaky linoleum. 

"Wait!" He pauses his steps but stays facing forward, tilts his head to the side slightly and she catches the sharp angle of his jaw. Waiting on her. 

She's not sure what to say but she presses her hand gently to his elbow. Feels him tense at the touch but she grips him gently anyways. "Thank you, for everything."

He reaches into his pocket and hands her a small roll of bills in a rubber band. "For the cab fare." And he's briskly walking away and out of the store, as if he'd never been there. 

Her hand closes over the thin roll of bills and she glances at it. Eyes wide. The first one is a hundred. And so is the next and the next. She's holding nearly two grand in her shaking hands. 

She finishes her grocery shopping quickly. Adding many more snacks and fruits them normal but she can afford it and doesn't think about how she came to the money or how he came to the money. Just takes it gratefully and gets food for her son and dogs. 

Takes the cab like he'd asked. Gets home safe and sound and is thankful. Because the tv is screaming about gang activity just a block away from where she had been shopping. Her hand over her heart as she watched the live news feed. Many already dead.

He'd saved her again. And she didn't even know his name.


	10. Chapter 10

10

The next month passes without him popping up again. Krista goes to work. Takes the dogs on walks. Goes grocery shopping with her son every Saturday like normal. And realizes she getting bigger every single day. 

She huffs and squirms on her bed, hips jutting upwards in the air as she grunts and tries to fasten her pants. She finally gives up and groans. A slimy warm tongue rolls over her cheek and she groans again. Jäger's happy panting at her ear. 

"I'm getting fat boy..." She huffs and sits up, brushing a hand over her neck. Guess she's got to find her old maternity clothes. Her hands rifle through the closets and she huffs, tapping her chin trying to figure out where they are. 

There's one more spot she hasn't checked. The small attic space above the kitchen. So she drags a chair to the middle of the floor and stands on it, one of the legs a bit shorter then the rest. Making her wobble and work for her balance as she reaches up and pushes up on the wood square to the attic. 

She's too short to reach much further then her finger tips but she can grasp the edge of a storage tub. Pulling and grunting she manages to get it to the edge of the ceiling. But her balance slips and the tub comes down on her with no warning. Hitting her in the chest and pushing her quickly to the floor. 

Her head cracks on the white and blue tiles of the kitchen floor. Two wet noses pushing gently at her arms as she whimpers and clutches at the side of her head. "Shit..."

Zachary's little feet sound on the floor as he rushes to sit at her hip. "Mommy?" His small hands reach for her. Wanting to help but too young to know how.

"Mommy's fine baby, she fell..." She tries to sit up and regrets it, her head spinning and vision wavering. Fuck.

Bruce suddenly barks and the doors opened, like kicked open and slammed shut. Heavy footsteps sounding on the floor and Krista reaches for her gun with shaky hands. Clicking the safety off even though she can't really see straight. Her other arm pulling Zach to her chest. 

"Easy girl." His voice startles her and she intakes a sharp breath. The weight of the gun suddenly like a brick instead of lightweight. 

His fingertips brush hers and he gently pries the gun from her hands. Hears the flick of the safety. But Zach is clinging to her chest because he had felt her fear in that split second and it wouldn't go away quickly. 

"It's okay baby." He doesn't loosen his hold but she just moved with him there. Strong hands helping her sit against the counter. Fingers threading through her hair to see the damage done. 

"You're bleedin."

"Is it bad?" She's trying to blink away the blurring as in her vision. 

"Won't need stitches." He kneels down still towering over her and her son, stoops to her eyes level and holds up three fingers. "How many."

It takes her a moment. "Four?" She can see his frown at her answer and she whispers a soft curse closing her eyes. She can't even think about him being here or how he got here so fast because she's just thankful he is here. 

"Do I need a hospital?" She opens her eyes and some of the blurry film is gone. His eyes are dark brown, nearly Amber in color. 

"Don't think so." She sighs in relief and reaches out blindly, finding his hand and squeezing gently. A silent thank you. 

Several moments pass while she tries to clear her vision. Him crouching in front of her watching her closely. Zach calming down and laying his head on her chest. The dogs both sniffing at him and wagging their tails. They've never done that with any other male before. 

"What you doin up on that chair girl." 

"My clothes don't fit.. Needed my old maternity stuff from the attic."

"Got anymore up there?"

She nods and watches as he stands and takes her hand. Pulling both her and Zach up to stand and leads them to the near threadbare couch a few feet away. "Stay." He points to her to sit and she does, holding her son against her side. 

He moves quickly, standing on the chair. Keeping his balance. Getting down the other two containers of clothes before putting the chair back. 

He's at the door. Hand lightly touching the dobermans ears. His hood was on but showed his profile. Sharp strong jaw and nose. 

"Thank you." Several moments pass and he turns, sets another rolled up wad of bills on her kitchen table and turns to go. Always keeping his back to her. Hiding. 

"What's your name?" She asks softly, but he's out the door even as she speaks the words. The dogs whine softly and scratch at the closed door. Her son asleep in her arms.


	11. Chapter 11

11

"One batch two batch, penny and dime..." She reads Zach his favorite book. It's early Saturday afternoon. A few days after her fall in the kitchen. She's still got a small headache but no concussion thankfully. 

It's snowing so they decided to stay inside for the day instead of going to the park. Grateful she decided to get groceries this morning. Bruce and jäger both are curled together on the fluffy faded dog bed by the TV set. Listening intently as she reads the children's book. 

She's opening her mouth to read the next line when there's a knock on her door. "Be right back, read to the boys." She hands the book to her son and he waddles over to sit in between both dogs and mumbles gibberish. 

Opening the door he's standing there. Ball cap pulled low and hood up, shoulders hunched in the chill. "Need to fix your door..." 

"Oh um, come on in..." She steps aside and let's him in. Having trouble closing the door correctly since the latch is crooked now. 

Zach comes up, holding the book in his hands upside down and leans into her legs. "Mommy?" 

"Yes baby." She picks him up, hefts his body to her hip as he looks at the man and he looks back. Surprising her by pushing back the dirty ball cap so Zach can see his face more and in return her. 

"Who ar you?" He asks innocently and Krista shushes him, blushing softly and turning to apologize. 

"Frank," he clears his throat. Voice steadier now. "My names Frank little man." 

"I'm Zachary." He voice is childish and messing up his z's to sound like th's but Frank gives a small smile. 

"Go play." She pushes him gently into the living room and looks up at Frank. Frank... It fits him. 

"You don't have to do that."

"I broke it, gonna fix it."

She nods at him, letting him work on the door while she goes back to the couch and keeps her son occupied. Both of the dogs sitting feet away from Frank. Watching him attentively with little wags of their tails whenever he looks at them. 

He's done quickly. Tests the door a few times, making sure it latches correctly. Comes into the living room. 

Krista is leaned back on the couch. Zach poking and rubbing against her growing baby bump with a child's fascination. She's smiling softly but frank can see the worry in her eyes only a mother can have. Can she do this? Will she be able to provide for them? Can she pay the bills on time? 

He has to push away the pain in his chest at the sight. His wife had looked like that when they figured out she was pregnant again. It scared her to death and he'd done everything he could to dispel that fear. But it never really goes away, always there. 

"Thank you Frank. For everything." He nods and is about to leave but she stops him, placing Zach on the couch. Motioning Frank to follow her to the kitchen so they can talk he assumes. 

"Why? Why are you helping me so much?" She asks softly and he's silent. Doesn't know how to answer that question, or how to explain his compulsive behavior when it comes to her. He doesn't understand it himself. 

"Want to make sure you're safe."

"Okay."

Okay? Frank looks up at her with a raised eyebrow. She's not fighting him. Not arguing that it's creepy or strange. Not vehemently shouting that she can take care of herself. Just simply, agreeing with what he's doing. Saying it's alright. 

"I appreciate it. I don't really know how to thank you." He's still silent. Speechless at what she had said a moment ago still. "That lawyer, what he told me?.."

"It's true."

Silence between them for long moments. 

"I don't care."

His eyes shoot up to meet unwavering blue. "You should."

"I'm alive because of you."

"Should run from me."

"Not going to."

"You're crazy girl."

"I've been told that before."

"I'm a killer."

"Yet here I stand." 

They stared at each other, softly and silently challenging the other to prove themselves wrong.


	12. Chapter 12

12

Frank stood there staring her down. Trying to intimidate her. Wanting her to run, to grab her baby and command her dogs to attack. 

But she doesn't. She simply leans back onto her counter top. The remnants of a meal with chicken nuggets, Mac and cheese and green beans sitting on the countertop. Mismatched plates in the sink ready to wash. A cracked cow shaped cookie jar by the coffee pot and a barely 21 year old pregnant woman staring down the punisher himself and not even knowing what he was. 

"I don't know why you saved me that day in the alley. But I'm grateful. And everything after that I can't thank you enough." She shrugs, tucks some loose blonde hair behind her ear as she watches him. 

He's not sure himself. He tries to help as many as he can. But most of the time he doesn't catch the act until it's already been done. She was lucky he was close. Lucky he had been hiding from Murdock.

He can't explain why he keeps popping up. Handing her wads of cash from his jobs or money stolen off of bodies he's dropped. He just wants to help. Help her. 

Just looking at her makes him want to wrap her up in a blanket and hide her away. Such a kind young face, not unlike his wife's had been when they first met. Reminding him of her sweet words and warm heart. 

Her little boy a spitting image of his mother and so well behaved he had to give the young woman credit for it. 

"The money, you don't have to do that." She gestures to the roll on the kictchen table, sat just where he left it. But a little wider, like she had opened it and then rolled the bills back together. 

"Bartender don't make much."

"No, no we don't." She smiles a bit and chuckles under her breath. She could just barely make ends meet on a good week. A bad week meant canned ravioli and ramen. Spam for the dogs.

"I'll leave ya alone, that's what you want." 

But she doesn't want that. She relies on the fact he's watching over her. It keeps the nightmares at bay from that night in the alley. It keeps her spirits high at work when the tip jar is lacking and she goes hungry so her son can eat some days. 

"Come by whenever you like, Frank." He nods, turns to leave but not before stooping and rubbing both dogs heads before leaving the now fixed door. Krista realizing he put another chain lock on under the first. 

What type of murderer puts more locks inside a house?


	13. Chapter 13

13

Spring finally hit the city. Breaking through from the ice and frigid cold to warmer days and a near constant rainfall over the city of New York. 

It meant more people were out to the bars, her tip jar filling up more and more. It meant longer walks in the park watching her son play with the dogs. 

It meant Frank came by more often. 

It started out as him telling her when to take a cab to work once or twice a week. Then he brought her take out when she couldn't go grocery shopping one Saturday. Leading up to him popping in after her shift some nights when she was too tired and offering to walk the dogs for her. 

And finally he's there four nights a week, walking the dogs, eating dinner at her table some nights. Small talk over coffee. It's never too detailed. She doesn't ask because he doesn't want her to know. But she gets the idea. 

Sometimes he's hurt. A busted lip or a black eye. Sometimes a cracked rib and once a broken nose. She helps patch him up in her tiny bathroom. Her small hands stitching up slashes or stab wounds, winding bandages over hurt ribs or dabbing antiseptic over a cut on his temple. 

Like tonight. He came to the door with his hood up, covered in shadows since her porch light burned out weeks ago. He's gripping at his left upper arm, and she can see the drip drip drip of crimson blood on her front steps. 

"Jesus Christ get in here." She ushers him inside, locks the door behind her and shushes the whimpering dogs trying to lick at Frank's hands. Luckily her son's asleep, seeing Frank like this would upset the child greatly. He looked up to Frank.

"Just a scratch." He mumbles as he sits on the closed toilet seat in her bathroom. She's tugging and pulling around his grip on his upper arm. Got to get that jacket of his off. 

"Frank don't lie to me, that's a gunshot." She growls at him, giving him her best mom glare for several moments. 

Frank's dark whiskey brown eyes stare up at her for long moments before he sighs and winces. Moving his arm and shedding his leather coat. Krista takes in the damages and holds back a shudder. There's old wounds, gunshot wounds, scattered all over his skin. 

She looks, focuses her little medical knowledge on what she sees. There's an exit wound. So the bullets gone. "Clean through." 

She says and reaches over his shoulder to the medicine cabinet. Her belly is rounded now, four months and still growing every day. She has to stand to the side and reach one handed to get the suture kit and bandages she keeps for Frank.

She doesn't see his dark eyes roaming over her stomach. Over the inches of flesh exposed at her lower back from her small sweater as she stretches to reach. Or how his right fist clenches and he has to rip his eyes away from her chest and belly. 

Her hands are steady as she cleans around the wound, stitches him up and wraps gauze around his bicep. Ignoring the thick solid muscles as they went taut under her touch. 

She's finishing up. Fingers grazing over his neck and chin as she looks at the black eye that's forming and the small cut on his hairline. Too focused on her task for the moment to notice until his heavy palm is warm and gentle on her hip, thumb just barely touching the baby bump. 

Krista stills, looks down into dark orbs and sees the self loathing there. The guilt and grief clear as day as his fingers move to lay over the side of her belly. She's looked him up, his family murdered in cold blood. The reason he is who he is now. 

Frank realizes what he's doing and starts to pull his hand back. Thinking her silence and stillness is her showing fear at his forwardness. That he's crossed that line they'd been toeing for weeks now, maybe months. 

But she surprises him, taking his much larger palm in her own and placing it back onto her stomach. Warmth spreads from his hand to her stomach and he feels it, the taut skin. Reality hitting him, she's pregnant. Like he hadn't really accepted it yet. She's openly touching him, a mass killer, and she's fucking pregnant and weak and should be scared shitless.

"I'm not afraid of you." She whispers, her other hand reaching up to run through the unruly short locks of his dark hair. The curls winding around her finger. 

"You should be." He can't look at her, mesmerized by the life growing inside of her at the moment. Trying to make her understand, she should flee. Run from him. Far far away. 

"You keep us safe." She watches and feels as both his hands grip her hips now, gently because of her fragility and his injury. 

"You need protectin'." He tugs, just enough pressure to elf her know he wants her to step forward. Just and inch or two so he can lay his forehead against her swelling stomach. 

"Yeah, we do. But not from you Frank." She moves her hands to cup his chin. Forces him to look up at her as she bends and kisses his temple. 

And Frank let's a few tears fall. Wether he's crying for his dead wife and kids or for the fact this young mother is the only one since then that isn't afraid of him. That wants him around and doesn't flinch at his presence. He's not sure. He just cries.


	14. Chapter 14

14

"You should move to a better part of Manhattan." Krista looks up from the cake she's making. It's for Bruce and she's only doing it because her son can't see why the dogs shouldn't celebrate their birthdays. 

Frank's been coming regularly, nearly every day now. No more gunshot wounds but sometimes he's still broken and busted up. And Krista just patches him up and feeds him. Never asking questions. 

"I can't afford to move Frank." She sighs and goes back to mixing what's in the bowl. He's sitting at her kitchen table watching her work, Jäger's head on his thigh. 

"It'd be safer." He rumbles from his chair, his focus now on the panting happy Pitt bull leaning on his thigh and smiling up at him. 

"Yeah it might be, but I can't afford anything more then this place. Plus I got a free babysitter." She's pouring the gluten free mix into the pan. 

"That money I give you, what you doin with it?" He's glancing back up to watch as she wipes her hands on the hand towel. 

"I buy more food and put the rest away."

Frank raises an eyebrow at her and a little smirk appears on his lips. "As in that very obvious old coffee can on your fridge?" 

Krista stills, looks up at Frank and huffs out at him. "That obvious?" 

"That cans about three years out of date and you don't drink coffee." He points to the pot that's covered in a layer of dust because she really does hate the taste of the stuff. 

"I don't like banks, they get robbed." She sits gingerly on the only other chair for the table and sighs. Rubbing her lower back and closing her eyes as she soothes the small ache. 

"I ain't sayin use the bank, I'm sayin find a better hidin spot for that." 

"Like where Frank? I can't exactly get up high or crawl around on the floor for a loose board." She raises a brow at the large male in her kitchen. 

His presence takes up any space he's in. Wether it's a large open alley or her small apartment, he swallows it up with his frame and bulk and mood. It's a bit dark and shadowed, but it makes her feel safe. 

He shrugs, keeping his next comment to himself as Zach comes bounding in with Bruce at his heels. The larger dog wearing Zach's batman mask and cape and Zach has on his little robin cape and mask. It's too precious to ignore and Krista wishes she had a camera or a smart phone like everyone else did. 

Frank watches as the little boy makes the dog lay down with a soft command, the big vicious animal everybody claims him to be, letting this little four year old child climb to sit onto his back and tug on his ears and collar like it was nothing. His bobbed tail wagging frantically as he painted and leaned back to lick at the little boys face. 

He smirks at the spectacle. The pain in his chest when he's reminded of his son and daughter is still there when he sees happy children. But is a tiny bit more bearable now. A tiny bit easier to smile and not push the joy away because he acts like his son did. A little bit easier to look as Krista and not think of his wife. 

"Frank?" He's shaken from his thoughts as Krista says his name. Apparently she's said it a couple times because her brows furrowed and she's looking at him like she does when he's bleeding. Worried. 

"Yeah."

"Want some dinner?" He nods , attention now to the little boy who's placing a coloring book on the floor by jäger. Just in front of Frank. Coloring out a page that's already nearly full and tattered on the edges. 

She's ordering pizza. Her son is at his feet coloring wearing a robin costume. Pitt bill at his hip, Doberman sitting wearing a mask and cap. Cake in the oven. She's wearing an apron over her swelling belly. 

And all Frank can think is that 'when in the hell had he gone domestic so suddenly?


	15. Chapter 15

15

There's a smart phone on her kitchen table. Sitting on top of the box. A sleek iPhone six in a neat black and white striped case. With a little sticky note from her fridge stuck next to it. 

-Numbers in there. Passcode is 3861. Be gone for a few days, stay safe and take cabs. F- 

As she picks up the phone there's a neat stack of hundreds that had been hidden beneath it. Krista closes her eyes sets the phone aside and puts all but one of the many bills into the coffee can. The other into her wallet before she explores the new gadget. 

Only one number is set in there. Under the name Max. She's knows it's Frank though because she's told him about his dog that had been euthanized at his arrest. The one that acts so similar to Jäger. 

She clutched the phone to her chest for a minute. Taking in the fact he's taking care of her like no one ever has her entire life. A women who didn't graduate high school. Who got pregnant too early. Who didn't even know her but saved her in that alley and in turn kept saving her. 

Taking care of her. 

She looks at yesterday's paper. Chewing on her lip as she opens it up and looks through the advertisements for bigger apartments. Her eyes skimming over the outrageous prices and she has to stop after a few minutes. 

It's too much. This tiny little two bedroom apartment is all she's known since running away from home in her teenage years. It was Donny's and the only reason she hasn't left was because he put the lease in her name a few years ago. 

She knows the neighborhood isn't the best. Knows cops take an hour or more to respond on calls around here. Knows there's shady characters around here. But they leave her alone. The dogs make sure of that. Every time. 

Her hand moves to her stomach and she sighs. But she needs to. Zachary will be in school in a couple years. And with another baby on the way she needs to think about moving. The apartment is just too small for everyone. 

So she opens up the paper again and starts looking. Her families growing and she needs space. Maybe an extra bedroom... She does have a near constant house guest.


	16. Chapter 16

16

Her choice is made on moving a few days later. She's on her way home. Walking through the streets and sidewalks with Jäger at her side. Take out in neat little boxes stuffed inside a couple plastic bags from the taco truck a few blocks away. 

Jäger suddenly gives off a warning growl, the hair between his shoulders raising and his steps push Krista more toward the street then the alley across from them. 

"Jäger?" Another deep growl towards the alley and he's pushing her backwards towards the street more and more, showcasing how much strength he really has. 

He snarls, all slobbering teeth and wide open mouth with sharp canines poking from wide jaws. A teenager coming out of the alley with a raised gun. His hands shaking and there's sweat spattered over his forehead. 

"Gimme yor money, gimme yor money now." And Krista's frozen because she's not wearing her gun. Her blade is long gone months ago. And she's having a very hard time keeping Jäger from biting this kids face off and facing a lawsuit. 

"I don't have.."

The guns hammer is cocked back and Krista's world froze for two seconds. Staring down the barrel of a pistol, her dog waiting impatiently for a command to attack. Looking back at this kid who looks ragged and worn already from this city getting to him. 

That frozen feeling stops the second a dark figure slams into the kid from the side. The gun goes off and is dropped to the ground. Skidding to a stop in the gutter as the kid screams for help when help won't come. 

Frank's standing over him now, a boot slammed into the kids side and she can see blood welling up in his crooked teeth. Tears falling from his young eyes and she's got to stop this. 

She doesn't yell his name, that would be just stupid. Most of the city thinks he's dead. So she loosens her leash on Jäger and says, "Subdue." 

The Pitt takes off like a bullet, knocking over Frank's leg as the muscled animal stands over the kids chest. Teeth snapping and saliva dripping at every move the kid makes to try and get away. 

"Get it offa me!" 

"No." She says simply and moves to stand over the teenager, her hand gently sliding over Frank's elbow in a small gesture to calm his tight fists. 

She bends slightly to look him over. Black eyes and maybe a broken nose. His teeth were coated in red and his eyes wide with fear. His thin, she can see it in his cheeks, and maybe high or on drugs she's not sure.

"You're stupid for ever trying to rob a woman with a dog, let alone a Pitt, kid." She reaches into her purse and pulls out two twenties, dropped them on his chest. 

Jäger's still snarling and snapping at the crying teenager under him. Playing it up more than anything because he won't bite unless he's told to. But it's a frightening sight. Having a monstrous looking dog hovering over you like that. 

"Get a job and you won't need to rob people." She stands fully and rubs at her back for the ache there. She's suddenly very tired and just wants to go home. 

"Jäger, heel." It takes a moment but the instantly vicious animal starts smiling and wagging his bobbed tail. Stepping off the kid and backing up to stand on protectively in front of her. 

She takes his leash and watches as the kid sits up. Mumbles a soft sorry ma'am and then takes off, feet tripping over themselves as he vanishes. 

"You okay?" Frank asks gently and cups her elbow to stoop down and look her in the eye. His whiskey colored eyes barely peeking from the bill of the ball cap he's wearing low. Filled with worry and something else. 

"Just take me home Frank, please." And he does.


	17. Chapter 17

17

"You gonna move now?" He asks as he sits her down on her couch. Her hands are shaking and she's clenching onto the chain leash in her hands with a white knuckle grip as she nods at him. 

"Where am I gonna go Frank? The only places I can afford are places like this..." Her voice is shaky, small and he hates it because she's strong and this city is scaring her. 

He stays silent. He's got the money to set her up. Somewhere in an okay neighborhood with cops that actually do their jobs. But he doesn't want that. He doesn't want her in a place that he'll get spotted or where she won't be near him. 

He likes seeing her nearly every day. Likes seeing her little boy play with Lego's and run around in a batman mask. He likes watching her cook or clean or just simply sit on the couch. He wants her safe, completely. And there's only one way to do that. 

"I got a place in Harlem. Lots a room." He says gruffly, face looking away from her as he lets and scratches the Pitt's ears. 

He wants her to say yes. Wants her to realize he wants nothing more then to keep her safe, all of them. Too quickly he's found himself attached to her little growing brood. And he doesn't want to pull away, it would destroy him. 

And if she got hurt when he wasn't there, that would destroy him too. Today was a close call, a really close call. If it hadn't been for her releasing her dog, he'd have killed that kid. And he didn't want to hurt the teen. He was lost and scared, broken down too early by the city. 

"You mean, move in with you?" Frank looks up at her and nods. 

"Lot safer, out of the Kitchen." He's searching her eyes for something to tell him he's made the right choice. Hasn't moved to quickly to whatever is going on between them these past few months.

"I... I'd have to quit my job... I can't do that I don't have a diploma or anything..." She's staring downwards, not at his face but at the bullet hole in his leather jacket. On the bicep. "How am I gonna pay for anything??"

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." She smiles a bit, eyes watering a bit as she finally looks up to lock blue to brown. 

"You offerin to take care of us Frank? All of us?" Her hand is on her belly, the other pointing to where Zach is back in his little bedroom taking a nap. 

And Frank takes a moment, because yeah that's exactly what he wants. And maybe he's replacing his family in some way, maybe he's simply wanting to take care of her. Or maybe he's accepted the fact that they're dead and he's got to move on at some point. 

He doesn't want to think about it anymore. Matt's getting closer and closer to getting him in cuffs every time he comes over here to see her. The fuzz is getting suspicious about his so called death and dammit he wants her safe. He just wants her. And that little boy and those smiley slobbery dogs panting up at him. He wants it all. 

"Yeah, I am. That okay with you?" 

"Yeah, it's okay with me."


	18. Chapter 18

18

Harlem is definitely different than the Hell's Kitchen she's used too. The neighborhoods are cleaner. Walking around you don't feel like you're going to be robbed or attacked. 

Frank handed her a note with an address and a set of keys. Told her to take the afternoon and check out the apartment while he .. Does whatever he does when he's not with her. 

She's staring up at an old brownstone building. Small metal gates that are rusted and some are crooked around basement doors. Beside sets of steps that lead up to doors lines down nearly an entire block. It's clean and has no graffiti along the steps. 

It's so much nicer than where she's lived already. The key tight in her hand as she leads her son and dogs up the small set of steps and unlocks the weathered wood door to the place. Claws click on the hardwood as she lets herself in. 

It's, not what she was expecting. Seeing Frank he's so dark. There's nothing personal on him, that she's seen. But his place is... Nice. 

There's soft worn rugs over main traffic areas. A worn but comfy looking leather couch in front of a flat screen tv. There's crates holding up a plank of wood for a coffee table but it adds charm. 

She lets the boys explore as she locks the door behind her, habit more than anything, and explores. The kitchen is the size of her entire apartment now. Sparse with hardly anything of food besides frozen dinners. 

And ... Holy crap those are stairs, inside the apartment. Stairs. So she climbs them and takes it all in. This place has three bedrooms. Three bedrooms. And they're so much bigger than what's she's had for so many years now. 

Two separate bathrooms. Closets. Two of them are locked and so is one of the bedrooms. So she leaves them alone and continues on. Seeing where her son had wandered off to. Finding him in an empty bedroom playing with the dogs. A rope toy in his hands. 

"Honey where'd you get that?"

"I found it." He points his little hand to the corner where a dog bed lays, a bit ratty and worn. Some toys and bones and a metal food bowl with the word Max on it. 

"Those are another dogs honey." She's not sure how to explain why the dog isn't there so she takes the toy and ushers them from the room. 

She's sitting on the couch thinking when Frank unlocks the door and let's himself in, the dogs barking and running to greet him. 

Even Zach jumps up and runs to the man, surprising him and his mother by latching onto his leg and smiling up at Frank. Krista sees it the second Frank's heart breaks at the sight of her little boy at his leg. 

Maybe this was a bad idea... Frank's still healing. This could be moving too fast, whatever this is. But he surprises her. 

"Hey little man." He picks up the boy and hefts him onto his side. Zach leaning forward and pushing back the hood that covers Frank's face most of the day. Revealing that strong jaw and stubbled skin. The dark mass of curls on his head. 

"Been good for your mom today?" Zach nods and does this little happy jig with his hips and arms and legs that's so cute. And Frank smiles at the little boy.

"So, what do you think?" Frank asks as he sets Zach down on the ground gently, moving over to sit on the makeshift coffee table across from her. 

"I think it's huge." She leans back and looks up and around her, still surprised it's this nice. 

"And?" Frank questions gently. 

"And, when do I get out of that shithole?" 

He chuckles softly at her smiling face. Seeing him with her son, it made the choice for her. Frank needed to heal, and this was how. 

"Frank... Are you sure this is alright?" She sits up more and winces at the ache in her back and feet. 

"Course." She gives him a steady look. 

"Frank. I'm pregnant. I have a four year old and two very large dogs."

"And?"

"Well.. That's a lot of noise and movement all day. Plus once the baby is born it'll be late nights and crying and.."

He stops her by taking her hands in his and taking a deep breath to steady himself. "I'm makin a promise to you okay? I promise this is alright, it'll never be to the point where I say 'get lost' because I don't want that." 

He squeezes her hands as he continues. A sad smile on his lips. "I been through it all before. I'll be fine." She nods at his words, squeezing back and giving him a comforting smile. 

"Are you okay with it?" It's unsaid but he's asking it loud and clear. Is she okay with what he does. 

And a small part of her thinks she should be appalled by it all. Should run screaming and calling for police at the sight of him. But when she looks into the dark aged whisky eyes, the strong jaw and stubbled cheeks. She just feels safe. 

"I don't care, about any of it." He closes his eyes and brings her hands up to his lips and plants a soft chaste kiss on his knuckles. A silent thank you.


	19. Chapter 19

19

Moving doesn't take too much effort on Krista's part. Two days later there's a knock on her door and a professional moving crew is standing there waiting to help her. She nearly cries because fuck she does not want to pack anything right now with how her back is aching. 

There's nothing of value to break or get lost really, except her cookie jar and the coffee can. Both of which are already packed and empty. All those bills started to stack up and she can barely close her wallet but it's safe until she gets to Harlem. 

It only takes a couple hours, she doesn't have much. The most of anything are the toys from Zach's room and her kitchen wares. All in neat taped boxes. Labeled and stacked in the back of the truck beside their beds. Dog beds stacked as well. 

A quick trip to Harlem and an hour later and all the boxes are upstairs. She tips the men and closes the door behind her. Looking at Zach stand beside Bruce and jäger at her feet. All of it hitting her so suddenly she's got to sit down. 

-I just... Moved in... With the Punisher... Am I fucking nuts??....-

Her inner thoughts are quieted as Frank came in the door later that night. Zach asleep on the couch, little hand stretched out to lay on Bruce's neck.

He's got take out and he's a little bloody but she can see a brightness in his eyes she's never seen before as he locks and deadbolts the door.

"Hey." She says quietly from the kitchen table. Cup of hot tea in her hands as Frank sets down the Chinese. His heavy frame sitting on the chair next to hers with a deep sigh from his lips. 

"Hey." He grufs out a response and closes his eyes. A weariness over his body as he scrubs a hand over his face and hair. His knuckles are bloody and bruised, a near cut on his cheek.

"Rough night?" She asks, almost timidly. She's never cared about what he does, she still doesn't. But she worries, about him not coming back one night. 

"Not too bad." He keeps it short and simple notices how she nods and doesn't comment. Doesn't ask questions or pry about it all. 

"Krista.." She looks up at him, it's probably the first time he's called her by name. It's strange coming from his lips, but she likes it. It sounds warm. 

"Look I know... I know what I am, alright? But just, I ain't gonna vanish on ya." He reaches over and takes her hands away from the mug and wraps them in his own. 

"You're giving me somethin to Want to the come back to..." He's got more to say but he can't get the words out. So she squeezes his hands, leans over and kisses his cheek. 

She gets up and bids him good night, carrying her son up the steps to his new room Doberman on her heels. Leaving Frank to stare after her with a slack jawed look on his face for several moments. 

Jäger came up and sat his heavy wide head on Frank's thigh. He looks down at the happy looking dog and scratched his ears. "She's somethin ain't she boy?" 

Jäger only huffs out a reply and if a dog could roll his eyes, he would have.


	20. Chapter 20

20

Sometimes Frank doesn't leave the house for several days. He sits on his laptop, typing furiously. Writing down notes. Or he's cleaning his guns at the table. 

Now that, makes Krista nervous. Just a wee bit. Because Zach is very nosy and very inquisitive and firearms are dangerous to those who don't know how to handle them. Like four year olds.

Like today. She's walking in the front door, dogs running to meet Frank who's sitting at the coffee table cleaning an assault rifle. Her hand tight holding her son's so he doesn't run over to Frank like he's starting to do. 

Frank looks up and sees her discomfort, glances down at the gun and raises an eyebrow. She knows well and good he'd never do anything to hurt her baby boy. She knows that. It's the fact Zach doesn't know about guns, not really. 

"Want me to teach him?"

She purses her lips, taking a soft breath and nods. Letting Zach go but making sure he doesn't run as he goes into the living room to Frank. 

"Hey little man." Frank picks up the little boy, sets him on his knee and points too the weapon on the table. 

"Know what that is?" Zach nods and makes finger guns with his hands, whispering soft pew pews at Frank. 

"Good, but guns are very dangerous." And Krista watches as Zach takes in every word Frank is telling him about guns and how to never touch one. Never pick one up, always tell his mom or him if he sees someone with one. 

Zach is too young to remember half of it but Frank keeps repeating the important parts. Never touch one. Ever. And she watches him be so easy with her son. So gentle and kind even though his hands are stained in red. 

Later Zach is playing with his Lego's, a kids show on the tv, Bruce at his back. Frank's putting the guns away and Krista's at a loss because she hasn't had to work in two weeks and she's stir crazy. 

Her nails are tapping on the countertop, she's staring at the oven that's got dinner cooking. Counters clean, laundry done, dogs walked. And she's bored, so very bored. 

"What's a matter little momma?" His voices pulls her from her thoughts, her face scrunching up at the name. 

"Little momma? What am I, a street walker?" She quirks up a brow and he shrugs. A rare true smile on his face as he chuckles softly. 

"You are kinda short..."

"I am not!" 

"You are.." He's grinning at her. 

"Well you're freakishly tall so.." She sticks out her tongue at him, a very childish move and it only serves to make him chuckle more and the smirk to reach his eyes. 

"And you're a momma, so." He shrugs again and she sighs, putting a hand on her belly. 

She smiles, leans her hip on the counter and just looks at him for a moment. He's wearing something other then the leather and the duster and holsters. Heavy boots replaced with dark sneakers, dark grey sweats and loose grey sweatshirt. His beard is growing out again and getting a bit unruly. Thick mass of black curls on his head. Eyes bright with life. 

God he's handsome...

"So what's wrong?" He steps from the doorframe and settles in a chair at the table, long legs sprawling from it. 

"I'm just..." She groans.

He raises an eyebrow and smiles a little bit. "Not used to not workin?"

"Yeah, I'm fidgety. Bored."

"Get ya a hobby." He reaches over and snags an Oreo from the open package on the table.

"Like what Frank?" She points to her protruding belly. "Can't exactly go out and do a lot of stuff."

She slumps into the chair beside Frank's and rubs at her back. She's in her sixth month now and the back pains and swelling feet are getting to her. She feels like a whale, barely fitting in her clothes and constantly snapping at her son because she's irritable. 

Frank sees her differently. He sees a vibrant young mother. Smiling and happy, skin glowing and eyes bright. He sees her love for her son and for the baby not yet born. He sees beauty. And he hasn't seen anything like that in a log ass while. 

"Oh!" She's sitting up a bit, her hands over her belly and a grin on her face. 

"What's wrong?" Frank's worried voice makes her laugh softly. 

"Thought you'd been through this before Frank?" She takes his hand and tugs, placing his palm over her taut skin. 

Several seconds pass and he feels it, a little kick against his hand. 

The chairs barely hit the ground before the front doors slammed shut and Krista is staring at the overturned chair and the space that Frank was once in.


	21. Chapter 21

21

She's pregnant. She's pregnant. Fuck she's pregnant. A mantra repeating over and over in his head as he jogs through the streets. 

He's running, not running away but just...running. He's got to move, got to get his blood pumping. He's got to clear his mind .

She'd taken his hand and just, put it on her stomach. Fuck and he'd felt it. Felt that little kick and he'd wanted to kiss her. Wanted to kiss her bad. 

He slows to a stop, sweat coating his hoodie as he leans over a bench in Central Park. His breath in heavy gasps as he closes his eyes. 

He wanted to kiss her. It's the first sexual thought he's had since, since she's been gone. The very first. 

And fuck... Fuck fuck fuck... He feels his body responding again to the onslaught of Krista's pregnant stomach. And he's scared. 

Because since the night his family was killed, he hasn't had one single sexual thought since that night. Hell since before that night. He couldn't even sleep with his wife the night he got home. 

He's not stupid. Krista is one fucking hell of a looker. All pretty blonde waves and blue eyes. Curves in abundance and a bright smile. 

He noticed the first time, not when he saved her. He was too worried about her bleeding out. 

But the first time he really saw her. Walking her little boy into the park. Two large dogs at her side. Hair braided long down her back, the pink tinge in her cheeks from the cold. She was beautiful. Downright fucking beautiful. 

The kind of girl you see in a calendar holding a puppy or stretched across a classic Camaro. Damn beautiful. 

And it didn't bother him until this very moment. Bother him that that animal, primal, instinctual part of him that reacts to that kind of sight, didn't work the past two years. 

It was shut off, flicked like a switch. Shut down pure and simple. Not a peep, not a rush of blood. Nothin. 

Yet the second her eyes locked onto his. His big hand on her belly. Feeling her baby kick? Fuck.. It sent him raging, boiling, bubbling. Blood pumping to places they hadn't been in a long time. 

Frank caught his breath, willed his body to relax in the darkened park. Willed himself to be calm and not think about her till he got in the safety of his own shower...


	22. Chapter 22

22

Frank walks into the house. Jäger jumping up from the couch and claws clicking on the floor. Little bobbed tail wagging as fast as it can as he sniffles at Frank's hands. 

"Not supposed to be on the couch bossman." He kneels down after locking the door and rubs at the dogs head fondly. 

"You're momma mad at me?" He asks the dog and jäger looks up the steps and whines. Frank's got no idea if the dog actually understood him, or what. But he takes that as she's not mad. 

His feet are silent even on the creaky boards of the floor and stairs. It makes no difference seeing as jäger just runs up them making a shit ton of racket as he does so. 

Her doors jarred open and the Pitt pushes it open more. Revealing the lamp on and her sitting against the headboard with a book in her hands

His knuckles wrap gently on the door. She doesn't answer but patts the bed so he can sit down beside her. His hands loose between his knees as he thinks about what to say. 

"I'm sorry." She says and his whole body twists around in shock at her saying the words he wanted. 

"What are you sorry for?" He shakes his head, hand ruffling his curls and he sighs deeply, heavily. "It ain't nothing you did darlin, promise." 

"Then what Frank?" Her voice cracks a bit and she looks away from him. "Why did you just... run off?"

"There's stuff I been dealing with, since they died and.." He sighs and takes her hand in his, threads his larger fingers into hers. "Feeling that baby kick, and you bein so God damn gorgeous.... It all came rushing back and I didn't know how to deal with it." 

His eyes won't meet hers. "I didn't mean to scare ya, or make you mad or think this was your fault. Cause it ain't." Her hand squeezes his but he doesn't meet her gaze. His cheeks tinging pink in embarrassment. 

"It's me not havin control over myself. Seeing you like that just... Hit me all at once." 

Her free hand landed on his wrist, tugged gently until he finally relented and looked up at her. Clear blue eyes bright staring back at him. 

"It's okay, I get it." She squeezes his hand in her own and gives him a small smile. "Besides, you called me gorgeous. Bout time I got some kind a compliment out of you about something more then my cookin."

He chuckles out, a relieved feeling coming over him as she tried to make him feel better. But it would take a lot more then that. Guilt weighed heavy on his heart and that doesn't go away quickly. 

He shouldn't be feeling the way he is. Not with Maria dead in the ground and his kids laying with her. When he came home last he should have been able to sleep with his wife. But he couldn't. His body just, didn't want to do what his mind and heart wanted. 

Then they all died the next day and he didn't have another chance to try again. Here it is, two years later and he's grown accustomed to it. But Krista pops into his life, puts his hand on her stomach and suddenly he's raging to take her to bed. 

If he couldn't do it for Maria. He doesn't deserve the feelings he's developing for Krista. His wife is dead, his wife. And he shouldn't be feeling this way.


	23. Chapter 23

23

Her first pregnancy Krista hardly had the strange cravings. Maybe some late night ice cream or mustard on pickle chips but that was about it. This time around... She's getting creative. 

Right now it's dinner time. And for the first time in a long while Frank is there in time for it fresh from the oven. There's lasagna and garlic bread with a salad sitting on the table .

Jäger's getting bits of food from Zach's fork when he thinks his mom isn't watching. Frank's giving the little boy a wink every time he thinks he's being sneaky. Bruce is getting bits of bread from Frank. 

And Krista's slathering peanut butter over her garlic bread and ranch dressing in her lasagna. 

"Uh, darlin?" Frank asks the mother, watching with a hint of disgust as she readily eats the catastrophe on her plate like its delicious. 

"Hmmm??" She glances up from her chewing, eyebrows raised in confusion as Frank just gestures to her plate with a weird look on his face. 

"It's good..." She tries to reason with him. But as she says it, the mixed tastes suddenly aren't so good anymore and she starts to feel that acidic tinge to her palate that lets her know she's going to be sick. 

Her table napkin is fluttering to the ground as she makes her way to the bathroom just in the nick of time. The door slamming closed makes Frank flinch just as much as the pitiful sounds of her retching makes him pity her. 

"Mommy?" Zach is climbing from his chair and Frank's quick to pick him up and put him back in his seat. 

"She's okay little man, sometimes she eats things that don't mix and it makes her tummy hurt." He tickles the little boys belly and gets a giggle. 

"You finish your dinner, and quit feeding the dogs, they're fat." Zach acts as if he wasn't doing that very thing but the second Frank turns his back his little fork is headed towards Jäger's big watering mouth. 

Frank only chuckles and sits back down. Not willing to leave the boy alone with eating utensils even for a moment. Kids can get hurt with anything and everything. He knew that for a fact. But he wanted to check on Krista badly. 

When he realized the boy had eaten all he wanted and was just seeing how high the dogs would jump for a bite of food. Frank ushered him to go play in the living room. Four year old set in front of the tv Frank made his way to the bathroom, fingers rapping gently on the door. 

"Krista?"

"'M okay..." Her voice was cracked and she sounded weak. 

"Don't sound like it. Can I come in?"

He heard a mumbled reply and just took it as a yes. He wanted to know if she really was okay. The door clicked open with a twist of his hand and he found her. Sitting next to the toilet, hand wound in her long blonde hair and ashen face all he needed to see. She's pale and trembling, free hand rubbing soothing circles into her belly. 

"Come on." He coaxes her up onto her feet and can see any quick movement could make her sick again. Gently he gets her up the stairs and into her own bedroom. Settling her into the bed he helps her lay down, hands softly pulling her shoes off her feet. 

"Frank I can't just lay down." She protests but doesn't fight him as he tugs the trash can close to the bed. Or when he pulls the covers over her legs. 

"Yes ya can." His voice is sympathetic but firm as he raises an eyebrow at her.

"Zach can't be by himself all afternoon."

"He won't be."

"Don't you need to 'work?'."

He shrugs. "This is more important."

That hits something deep in them both. Krista's going to do her usual thing and think about it for a second before letting it go. For now. And Frank's going to over analyze it once he's alone. 

She leans into the bed and nods, her stomach rolling and face still pale. Frank brings her a bottle of water and some tums, leaves her to sleep it off before he goes back to Zach and sits down. 

Watches the little boy play and color. Entertain himself for an hour or more before even looking up and seeing Frank there watching the news as he sits on the couch. Jäger next to him and the big wide head of the Pitt laying on his thigh. 

Frank thinks back, wonders when the kid usually goes to bed and can't recall more then the hour maybe. It's getting close to eight and he can see the boys eyes start to glaze and his hands slow as he plays. Clearly showing signs of exhaustion. 

"Ready for bed little man?" Zach looks up and nods. Eyes blinking sleepily as hands reach up for Frank in an obvious sign of pick me up. 

It's easy to fall back into this. Picking the boy up, cradling him against his larger chest and taking him up the steps. Helping the sleepy boy get into his pajamas, brush little teeth and use the bathroom. He's about to switch the light off when Zach speaks. 

"Book." Frank's confused until he sees the boy climb from the bed, walk over to the little bookshelf and take one over to Frank. 

His heart stops. 

He takes the book with trembling hands. 

"You want this one?" He can hear his own voice crack. 

Zach nods and climbs into his bed again. Bruce, the giant of a Doberman, is curled up on the end. Head lifted and ears perked as if waiting like Zach is for the book to be read. 

Trying to kill me...

Frank sits at the headboard, covers Zach up with his batman blanket and opens the book. Clearing his throat and his mind as he starts to read. 

"One batch, two batch... Penny and dime..."


	24. Chapter 24

24

Krista's making tea when he comes in the door suddenly. It's four am, and she can't sleep well lately. So she's awake and in time to see him stumble inside from the back door. Leathers slick with the rain pouring down outside. Strong face ashen and bruised.

"My god, are you alright?" She's hurrying over to him, as much as she can with her swollen feet and aching back. 

He doesn't respond immediately, just grunts and makes sure the door is latched tight. Leaning his left hand on the wall and water dripping from his long duster. Pink and red mixed into the water on the floor. 

"Frank you're hurt." He's not responding and his face is pale and it's scaring her. 

"'M alright." He takes a step forward and nearly collapses against the wall. A deep pained grunt leaves his lips. 

"Come on..." She's helping him into the bathroom, peeling back the leather and the padded chest plate with the white skull painted on. Face falling pale as she sees the three gunshot wounds over his flesh. 

He must have noticed her face because he's smirking and whimpering that it's just another one. No big deal. Jugheads couldn't land a kill shot if he wore a target. 

Two are in his right bicep, both clean trough but the blood is still weeping from the open wounds. The other is in his right side, below his ribs.

"Damn, knew that one would stick." He grunts out and winces as her smaller hands roam over his back to find the exit wound. Hears her intake of breath when she can't find one. 

"Frank... I've never." He can hear the whine in her voice, the trepidation. 

"S'alright darlin. I'll talk you through it." Baby blue meets whiskey and she nods, reaching into the drawer to pull out tweezers, needle and thread and antiseptic. 

It's a harrowing process and by the time she's got the bullet out she's wide eyed and covered in blood clear to her elbows. Spatters of it covering over her cotton pajamas. Marring the white with the crimson color. 

She keeps going, stitching him together with hands that desperately want to shake but she forces them still. Frank needs her steady right now, she can be scared and in shock later. When he's patched up and resting and safe. 

Finished an hot later. His ribs and bicep wrapped in gauze. She sits back on the floor and exhales long and shaking. Her back softly hitting the wall behind her as Frank sits still and covers the back of his neck with his hands. 

"If you wanna leave I'll understand...." His voice startles her from the void her mind was starting to seep into. 

She looks up from the blood on her hands. His blood. Up into his eyes that look so lost. Guilt, despair, vengeance. All of those boiling in his gaze. And she realizes something she should have awhile back. 

She wants to be with him. 

She knows he's been hurt so much. There's so much pain simply in his stance and true in his eyes. Physical, emotional, mental. He's broken, shattered and the pieces thrown to the wind and scattered in the gutters of this city. And he's done more for her in the past six months then anyone ever had in her entire life combined. 

She wants him.

His blood on her hands she surges forward on her knees, hands gripping the back of his neck as she locks her lips onto his.


	25. Chapter 25

25

He's frozen. Can't compute. Move. Think. He just feels her lips on his and he's frozen to the spot. Sitting on that toilet seat, body aching and strung tight. And hers between his knees, tugging him down to kiss her. 

She starts to pull back, can feel her worry and embarrassment without seeing her face. Let's her pull back enough to lock eyes with her for a moment. Wants to see into her soul. 

His hands cup her cheeks, long fingers cradling her face and neck. Thumbs brushing over her blushing cheeks and she's trying to speak. To say something and he just doesn't want her to feel sorry for what she did. 

He's not. 

He surges forward himself, lips melding to hers and he groans when a tiny little mewling whimper comes from her lips into his own.

Weeks wanting to do this. On top of months ignoring every little thing she does that's gorgeous and beautiful and sexy. Making himself keep calm, body reacting in ways it hasn't in years. Because of her.

And goddamn, he fucking wants her. 

His body hurts and aches but he moves, helping her up to stand while his lips pepper kisses over her jaw and neck. Little gasps escaping her lips as his stubbled jaw rubs her smooth skin red. 

He's backed her into the wall, taller frame caging in her own as she reaches up. Cards her fingers into his dark curls and arches up her body against his own. Her belly hitting his abdomen and he stills, slows. Hands roaming over her stomach gently. 

She speaks before he can get the question out. "I'm not leaving Frank." And it cracks the wall he's got up. 

He drops to his knees, raging body ignored as he cradles the sides of her belly. Feels the taut skin and life growing there. Little excited kicks hit his palms and fingers, showing how emotional and excited their mother was. 

His mind wants to stay here, in this tiny bubble that's been made around the two of them. But his heart has got other ideas and suddenly visions and thoughts of his wife are prancing around in his mind. Guilt hitting him like a lead pipe to the crotch. 

Tears fill his eyes and before he realizes it, he's got his arms around her hips and his forehead pressed to the life inside of her. Tears flowing down and he shudders and sobs silently against her.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KatieR? You're a doll and you keep on commenting honey!!!

26

Somehow, he's no idea how, they end up in her bed. His dark cargo pants are still a bit damp, her arms are still covered in his blood. His boots discarded on the floor downstairs. The lights are off and only the street lights outside break through the hazy rain covered glass panes to cloak the bedroom in shadows. 

His back is to the headboard as she leans into his chest with her back. His long lean legs bent and encasing her body to his own. Their fingers locked together and cradling her stomach. 

It's been silent for an hour now. Neither of them speaking or moving other than the occasional touch of his lips to her shoulder. Their hands following the kicks and punches of the baby. 

Something has shifted between them. That chasm that was always keeping them in reaching distance but making them stay back. It's like an earthquake come through and slammed the plates together. Throwing them up in a tangle of limbs and souls.

Now he can't stop touching her. Can't break away from her. He just can't. And yes, thoughts of his wife are still swimming in his head. But the ghostly feeling of her pregnant belly is covered by the feeling of Krista's body against his own. Alive and breathing. Here.

He knows he should feel horrible for how he's acting. Should feel that overwhelming amount of shame for holding another woman. For wanting to kiss her and hold her and feel her baby kicking. But it's not as strong as it used to be. Not as powerful as that first time he realized he wanted to kiss Krista. Still there but weakening with every caress and inch of skin he touches. 

The early morning sky is lightening up. Coating the dark blue and purples of the night sky with pale blue and light pinks as the sun starts to peek up from the horizon. Rain still pelting against the windows and thunder crashing in the distance.

He's tired, exhausted. Gunshot wounds burning and pulling at the tight stitches as he curls around her smaller frame. Knows she has to be tired from the way her breathing will even out before she makes herself stay awake in his arms. 

"Get some sleep, I gotcha." His voice is low, cracked and husky. And he feels her sigh softly and lean more into his chest. 

"What are we doing Frank?" Her voice sounds like his, emotional, tired. 

He's not sure himself. All he knows is he wants to never let her go. Ever. 

"We'll figure it out darlin'."


	27. Chapter 27

27

Zach wakes up to thunder and lightning. Bruce perking his head up as the little boy waddles his way sleepily across the hall and onto his mothers room. Claws clicking on wood floors as the Doberman follows alongside the boy to make sure he doesn't fall. 

"Mommy?" His voice is low and the sun is barely peeking from the blinds on the windows. His little hand is rubbing at his eyes as he crawls up onto the bed. 

Little blue eyes confused when instead of his mothers face he sees Frank's looking at him from over the covers. Dark brown eyes blinking as the little boy just moves towards his mother, curling against her chest. 

"Mnn baby what's wrong." Her voice is soft and cracked from trying to sleep. Her hands moving to smooth back Zach's mussy blonde hair in her half sleep. 

"Thunder." He says simply and curls under her chin, little hands reaching up to tangle in her hair as he yawns. Ready to go back to sleep. 

"S'okay baby, you're safe." She mumbles back, curling more around her son as she sighs and closes her eyes again. 

Long moments pass and Krista is back asleep. Doesn't even budge or wake when Bruce jumps up onto the end of the bed to curl up beside jäger. Whose head is laying over Frank's ankles. 

Frank leans up on his elbow. Looks down as mother and son doze in the early morning light. Perfect little version of herself mirrored into Zach's features. The pale yellow hair the bright baby blues. Shape of the nose and sharpness of their chins. 

His hand is resting gently on her hip. Thumb tracing over a stretch mark as he watches them sleep for minutes and minutes. 

Until Zach's small hand lands on his own. Blue meeting Amber and Zach smiles before leaning back into his mothers chest. His fingers wrapped haphazardly over two of Frank's. Holding on tight as of Frank would leave him, leave them.


	28. Chapter 28

28

They're walking down the street. The rain has slowed and the sun was shining down on the city trying to dry itself with the thin rays breaking through the cloud cover. 

Her hand is clasped in his own as they walk down the street. His face and neck covered by the hood and ball cap that is near constantly over his face. But his grip is strong and sure as he helps her over puddles and steers her clear of wet trash piles near the curb. 

He's sneaking passing glances at her as they walk. The way her hair is more golden in the sunlight. Her skin glowing on her face and a small smile on her lips as Zachary jumps into puddles. Little water boots splashing around before he makes it to another one while he giggles. 

They haven't talked yet. Though it's been a day or two since then. Her asking him what they're doing. He's still not sure, doesn't have a clue. But holding her hand, watching her smile? It's lifting that heavy weight from his very soul. Huh, wasn't even sure he had one anymore. 

"Zachary stay close." She says as the little boy runs ahead some. Not far but no longer in reach and he can see how her eyes widen and she speeds her steps to try and catch up with him. Though her body wasn't cooperating because of her heavy pregnancy. 

Frank doesn't want to attract attention but Zachary wasn't listening and he went around a corner. Out of sight and Frank could see her panic. Hell he panicked. 

"I'll get him." He's leaving her on the street, boots sliding on the wet pavement as he rounds the corner and grabs up Zachary by the back of his jacket. 

"Frank!" Zachary exclaims happily and the man winces but doesn't correct the kid. Far too young to understand why he shouldn't yell out Frank's name. 

He hefts the boy onto his hip and turns, going back around the corner. "Little man, you can't do that. You gotta stay close to us okay?" He holds Zachary against his chest and side with a relieved sigh. Anything can happen to a little baby in this city. 

"Okay." Is the boys response and Frank only rolls his eyes a bit under the ball cap. His gaze lifting up to find the street empty. 

Feet pause and he takes in his surroundings. Instinctually looking for Krista, any sign she's nearby or something had happened. Her knit hat is half in a puddle by the corner of the alley and he groans inwardly. 

He's holding a kid for Christs fucking sake. How's he gonna protect them both. But as his feet took him to the alleyway and into the shadows he lifted his finger to his lips to silence the child. 

Krista's pressed against the brick wall of a coffee shop. A blade held to her belly instead of her neck and she's staring wide eyed at the male in front of her. Her nails digging into the brick behind her. 

Frank's got his gun out before the guy realizes he's even there. 

"Put it down man or I'll gut her!" 

"Drop the knife..." He asks calmly, voice dark. He doesn't move his gaze from the asshole trying to hurt a pregnant woman to the boy in his arm. But can feel him tense and grip onto his hoodie tightly. 

He hears a whimper from Krista, can see how the blades sharp enough to cut into her jacket and press against her flesh now. 

Frank doesn't even think anymore. His finger pulls the trigger and the mans down on the ground with a jerk back. Vaguely he thanks god he grabbed the silencer when they left earlier. No sound. No cops. 

But Krista is slipping down the wall with a racking sob heaving her chest as she stares at the blood pooling at her feet. Vacant eyes staring back at her. 

Frank's hand on her shoulder startles her and she scrambles up to wrap her arms around his wide chest. His free arm wrapping around her shuddering shoulders as he holds her close. 

He's waiting for her to grab her son and run. But she just takes the baby into her arms for a second and checks if he's alright. 

"Mommy?" He's confused, and a little scared. They're not sure how to explain it to the little boy that won't scar him for life. 

"It's okay baby." She sniffles and smiles through it. "That man was gonna hurt me. Frank saved me." She fixes his coat and swipes her thumb over his pink cheek as he nods in understanding. 

"Can you take him?" Frank's already reaching out and holding the boy back against his side. Watching her as she opens her jacket and checks the damage the knife did to her belly. 

"It's not deep, barely a scratch." She's buttoning her jacket back up and smoothing out her clothes. 

Frank's moving them from the alley and back toward the house. Hand over her back and on her hip as he carries Zachary in the other arm. 

"Don't want the doctor?" 

"No, you can look at it once were back." Her own arm slips over his hips to clutch at the back of his hoodie as he walks them home. A perfectly good day ruined. Again.


	29. Chapter 29

29

"I hate this city." Her words are the first spoken in hours. And as if the clouds felt her anger and sorrow, a storm blew in out of nowhere. Causing some of the city to lose power. Rain pelted the window glass and thunder raged with lightning. Crashing around them.

Zach's laid on his side on the couch beside her. Fast asleep. Not even bothered by what happened that afternoon. At least not yet. Frank's worried he's scarred the boy for life.

Her hand is on his side side, gently patting down on the dinosaur pajama top he's wearing. She didn't yell at Frank for what he did. Instead thanked him when the boy fell asleep, safe in his mothers arms.

Frank's in the easy chair just across from her. Fingers untwined and knuckles gently tapping at his lips as he listens to her softly rant into the quiet room. The only real sound is the rain outside and the gentle panting of jäger against Frank's knee. 

"Not the city darlin, it's the people..." His voice is rich and dark like the shadows that seem to creep up to him. Even though the lamp is on he's still shrouded in darkness. 

"People are cruel and it's like a thick poison. One bite and it spreads and spreads till nothing pure is left." Voice darkens and Krista looks over at him. 

There's pain in his eyes still. Always present. But as they darken from whiskey brown to dark amber, she sees the rage there. The lava bubbling over. He hates what's happened to his home. The corruption and lies all over the place. No alley, corner store or designer boutique left out. 

Gently she lays Zach on the couch and off her thigh. Making her way over to Frank's side. His hand reaching out to grip at the back of her thigh as she stands there. His gaze unwavering as he stares at the little boy on the couch. So young and innocent, unable to comprehend yet the filth around him. The danger. 

"Hey..." She's reaching out to press her fingers to his shoulder. Making him blink and look up at her. "I'm alright."

He looks down, hand gently lifting her sweater so he can look at the thin cut on her lower belly. Fear had gripped him so hard when he'd seen that knife at her like that. Cold, icy dread. 

"This time..." He's too attached now to ever let her go. He promised to protect her yet here she was, injured and scared and her son had seen the act. 

"Frank he would have killed me.." 

"How are you okay with this?" He looks up at her, watching, pleading with his eyes for her to explain why. 

"Because you're a good man Frank Castle." He only scoffs at the phrase, foreign and strange coming from her lips. 

"Ain't been a good man in a long time girl." He hardly ever calls her that anymore, only when's he's agitated it seems. 

"You're good to me, to my son. Hell my damn dogs like you and they don't like anybody." She moves a bit boldly, moving around to sit on his knee. 

Instinctively he reaches for her. Pulling her close to him as she sits crossways on his knees. Left hand on her lower back and right gently landing on her left knee. 

"Frank you're a good man." She repeats it and it still doesn't sound right. 

"How can you say that, knowing what you do about me." Frank looks up and locks blue with whiskey. "Knowing what I go do nearly every night." 

She reaches up, traces light scarring over his brow line and temple. Eyes flickering to every one she can see. Finally landing on his face again, hand gently cupping his cheek. 

"Cause you do it for the right reasons Frank. Sometimes the justice system isn't good enough. Sometimes jail isn't good enough. And sometimes there's people that need more than a slap on the wrist." 

She feels his hands tighten a bit on her back and knee. Thumb of his right hand running soft slow circles over her thigh. His eyes watch her with a calculating gaze. 

"Those people need punished."


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys your comments are amazing! Thank you all for the praise and kind words! I'm sure this isn't the best Frank Castle story out there but if you guys think so that means the world to me!

30

"Little man com'ere a sec." Frank's sinking down into his arm chair and gesturing for the four year old to come to him. He picks up the boy and sets Zach on his knee. 

"Let's talk for a minute." Zach just nods okay and looks up expectantly at Frank. 

"What do you remember about yesterday?" He's waiting, watching for any signs Zach had seen what Frank had done. 

"I ran around the, the corner and I got in trouble." Frank nods. 

"Anything else?"

"Mommy was scared." Zach plays with the ties on his little sneakers. 

"Yeah, she was. Were you scared?" Frank's terrified he's fucked up this little boys life because of something he'd doe to protect them.

"Nu uh." Zach's smiling up at him, and Frank's looking in his blue eyes for something, anything to say he had seen. But there's only warmth and happiness there. 

Frank smiles softly and takes a soft sigh, putting Zach down and telling him to go play. He meets Krista in the kitchen where she's nursing a cup of tea , eyes glazed over in thought. She perks up as he sits on the chair beside her .

"Don't think he saw anythin, honestly think he was hiding his face in my coat when it happened." He scrubs a hand over his face and closes his eyes. 

"Thank god.." Krista grips at his wrist to reassure Frank and sighs herself. She'd never complain to Frank about what he did. But he son was too young for that life lesson. 

"I'm sorry." He says and she only leans to the side and lays her hire head against his thick shoulder. 

"Stop saying that, there's nothing to be sorry about." He doesn't respond, only lifts his head up. Reaches over with his left hand to lift her chin up, melds his lips to hers in something sweet and pure and breathtakingly short.


	31. Chapter 31

31

Time flies by after that. The last trimester always the worst for many mothers. The aches, the pains, the swelling feet and back spasms. She was irrational and cranky. A momma bear in every sense of the word. Poor little Zach was even keeping to himself at the moment. 

"Oh my god, why won't you just get out of me..." She's groaning and laying on her back on the couch. Her back feels like it's broken in two. Her legs and thighs are burning from carrying around her heavy weight and she's an entire three weeks from her due date. 

Frank chuckles softly from the kitchen as he hears her groan and gripe. It's cute, in a way a lioness is cute from a distance as it roars. Not close up. He brings a cup of mint tea to her and sets it on the coffee table. 

His heavy frame sinks down into the arm chair. He's tired, exhausted. His 'work' keeping him from the apartment most of the nights and days lately. Gang activity on the rise and the media is thinking he's back from the dead. They haven't caught a glimpse of him yet, but they will sooner or later. He's scared it'll bring problems to him, to her.

"I feel like a whale...." She groans and pulls Zach's batman blanket over her face as she whines. Frank just finds it sweet, a smile wanting to take over his lips. 

He knows better than to say anything right now. If he says she's beautiful she'll fight him on it and lash out. If he agrees with her she'll rip his throat out. He'd rather take on a dozen armed men than a pregnant woman. Fuck all that. 

"Frrraaaaaaank." She's peeking from the blanket and this time he does chuckle because her hairs frizzy and tangled. 

"Mhmmmm?" No words, only syllables. Too many words were dangerous to this lioness ready to pop.

"Get it out of me!" She pulls the blanket over her face again and groans. 

He chuckles a bit more that time. "He'll come out when he's ready. Ain't no forcing it to happen girl." 

She growls, honest to God growls and struggles her way into a sitting position. Her arms try to cross but her chest is too big and her belly too swollen for it to look anything but comical. 

"Ugh.." Her hands drop to poke at her belly. She doesn't remember being this big with Zachary at all. But the first pregnancy is always seen through rose colored lenses till the hospital. 

"Thought of any names yet?" Frank watches from his chair with this look of fondness in his eyes that's getting easier to show and feel. 

"Henry? Nah... What about... Danny?" She shakes her head again and sighs. "Naming them is so hard, you get that name for the rest of your life." She lays her head back on the couch. "Any ideas?"

He's taken aback. Being asked that, it brings back some memories he does not want to think about at the moment from years before. His eyes close and he can tell she knows what she said because she's stumbling trying to come up with something to say. 

"Always liked Jon." He says, voice a bit gruff as she looks at him. A smile forming on her pretty face. 

"I like it."


	32. Chapter 32

32

He's just now getting to sleep. It's three am and the city is slumbering in most places. Like he should be. His hairs still damp from the shower when he hears it. A small gasp and the crash of glass on the floor followed by a whimper from a dog. 

His bare feet are pounding on the wood floors. Skidding to a stop in front of her bathroom door. He can hear Jäger's soft whimpers and her own heavy breathing. 

"Krista?"

"Frank.." He's opening the door before anymore words come from her. 

She's standing against the sink, hand on her belly as the other clenches tight to porcelain to hold herself up. A glass of water crashed and busted on the floor. Fluid dripped down her thighs from under her nightgown and a puddle on the tile beneath her.

"Fuck!" He's moving lifting her up in his arms and off the slippery dangerous floor. Down the steps and setting her on the couch. 

"Call 911. I'll get your bag." She's nodding as the cramp passes and takes her phone with trembling hands. Dials the number. Barely registers her small duffle put beside her feet. 

She covers the mouth piece against her chest. Wide eyes looking up into Frank's. "Zach..." She can't take him to the hospital with her. 

"You go, I'll watch him." She wants to sob because she can't have Frank there with her either. Tears threaten to fall. He can't stand that look on her face but it can't be helped. 

"You won't be alone, I promise." 

He hides upstairs with the dogs and a sleeping Zach as she's helped out of the front door and into the emergency truck. Once the doors clicked shut he's moving. Grabbing a burner phone from his drawer and dialing a number he's memorized but hates to call. 

"Hello?" 

"Red, send Karen to the hospital on fifth and vine."

"Frank? She's gone into labor?"

"Just fucking do it Red. Do me his favor, please."

Silence. 

"I'll call her. We'll talk once this is over."

The line goes dead and Frank breaks the phone in his hands, crushes it to pieces and tosses it into separate cans and alleys as he makes a walk around the block quickly. 

He's not gonna regret asking Murdock for this. But he's gonna regret doing whatever favor will be asked of him in return.


	33. Chapter 33

33

Drugs were a wonderful wonderful thing for childbirth. Krista relaxed after another cramp came through. Each one a little bit sooner than the last but it was taking awhile. 

Her hands held her phone in a tight grip. She was alone. She hates it. Hated that Frank couldn't be here with her. Hates that Zach wouldn't know what was going on. Hated that she's alone and about to have a baby. 

There's a soft knock on her door and she thinks it's a nurse but a blonde head pops in. "Krista?"

She nods confused at the woman who lets herself into the hospital room. She's in sweats and her hairs messy but she still somehow looks put tougher. 

"I'm Karen Page honey."

"Okay??"

She sits in the chair beside the bed. 

"Let's just say a friend said he promised you wouldn't be alone." Krista wants to cry but Karen reaches out and takes her hand. "I know he can't be here honey, but you're not alone."

Krista squeezes her hand back and sighs a shuddering breath. "Thank you."


	34. Chapter 34

34

Twelves hours. Twelve hours in the hospital and ten of those hard labor. Krista is beyond exhausted, beyond tired. She has no tears left and her voice is nearly gone from the screaming. But it's over. 

Karen left an hour ago, leaving the mother alone with a gentle pat to the shoulder. A softly murmured 'thank you' from Krista and she was gone. 

Eight pounds, six ounces. Nineteen inches long. Brown eyes and from what she could tell, another blonde head. 

Her finger tips gently stroke his head, a heavy sigh escapes her lips. "Bout time mister." 

As he sleeps against her chest she pulls her phone off the table with shaking hands. Fingers fumbling with the touch screen until she finally hits call. 

He answers on the first ring. "Krista?"

She chokes back softly and smiles. "Hey."

"How'd it go?" Cause what else can he say? He couldn't be there, he sent someone she didn't even know. Worry hanging heavy on his tone. 

"We're good, took his sweet time coming out, but we're good." Her voice is thick and scratchy. Cradling the baby to her still sweaty chest. 

"Fr- Max.." She almost forgot as her mind races and heart pounded. "I need you. I need to see you." She chokes on a sob. 

Karen was a great person to have there with her. But Krista wanted Frank. She wanted Frank to hold her hand, to make her strong with his presence near her. She needed him before she broke down. The baby fussed against her chest as her emotions. 

"I'm on my way darlin." His voice is soft, softer than she's ever heard it and she nods, knows he can't see her and says okay. He hangs up.


	35. Chapter 35

35

She's asleep when he gets there. Chest moving gently with her slow breaths. Zach starts wriggling in Frank's arms. 

"Shhhh little man. You're momma's tired, don't wake her up." Frank whispers to the little boy. Settling himself into the chair by her bed with Zach in his lap. The poor little guy was tired and he leaned against Frank's chest and fiddled with the strings on Frank's hoodie. Moments later he's asleep.

The baby starts fussing and it's like Krista is hit with lightning. She sits up, wincing in her movements and tugs the plastic cradle closer to the bed. Easily reaching and picking up the newborn to place against her chest before she even realizes Frank is there. 

Worn blue eyes find whiskey and she smiles. "You came." She reaches out and he takes her offered hand in his giving a soft squeeze. 

"Course I did. You needed me." She squeezes back and smiles, following Frank's gaze to the sleeping newborn wrapped in blue and white against her chest.

"What'd you name him darlin?" Frank's voice is rough but there's a hint of something Krista's never heard before and she can't place it. 

"Jonathon.." She smiles at him but it falters and he sees it. 

She's biting into her bottom lip and her gaze goes back to the newborn instead of Frank. 

His hand reaches out, leaves hers to grip gently but firmly onto her chin and pull her to face him. Wipes the stray tear on her cheek with his thumb. 

"Tell me." Something had her upset. He knew it, could see it, feel it. Like the boy sleeping in his arms and the baby in her own. 

"I don't want him to have... His name..." Donney, that fucker sore excuse of a man who'd wanted to hurt her and take her son. Who screamed and yelled at her and threatened her for years. The one he shot and killed and left in an alley. 

Frank understood her perfectly. She's lived under that mans tyranny since the age of se teen when he knocked her up and made her move in with him. Zachary had his last name. She didn't want that for her son. 

"Use your name then." She smiles sadly and shakes her head. Chin moving gently in his strong gentle grip. 

"They disowned me years ago, made me change my name to Reyes. I can't... I can't ."

Frank gently shushes her and she collects her wrought emotions. He can see the fatigue clear as day on her frame and in her eyes. She needs rest. His brow furrows and he takes a soft breath as an idea forms.

"Use mine." 

She stares at him for a second. "Frank, if a newborn is named Castle won't the cops get suspicious?"

He shakes his head at her, wipes another tear from her cheek. His arm gently curling around Zach's sleeping form as Frank moves forward some in the chair. Offering comfort simply with his presence near her,

"Francis Castiglione, my birth name." Her brow furrows at his words. She's never known that. "Changed it before I went to basic. No one ever connected the dots at my trial."

"Frank I ca-" he shakes his head and gives her a small smile, a real one that reaches his eyes and makes them a little less dark. "Okay."

Jonathon Castiglione. Born on a calm afternoon in New York City.


	36. Chapter 36

36

He has to leave. Can't stay there long or he could get recognized. But there's one more thing and her hands are shaking above the birth certificate. 

Frank moves Zach to the chair gently as he stands. Looks over her shoulder at the paper and where she's trembling over. 

Fathers name.

She's leaning back, shaking her head and looking away from the paper to the newborn in the cradle beside her. 

"I can't... I - I won't." His arm wraps around her shoulders and tugs her face into his chest and stomach. Hand gently prying the pen from her hands to set it down on the table. 

"Leave it blank." He gets a shaky nod from her as she collects herself. Her emotions rampant and confusing. Draining any and all energy she somehow had left to stay awake. And she's been awake a long while now.

He kneels down and takes her hand in his, squeezing gently as he brushes stray locks of hair from her face. 

"You did good lil momma." And she smiles at him, closing her eyes as she tries and fails to playfully smack his hand. 

His lips touch her wrist and he's gone as she slips into sleep. Zach cradled in his arms and against his chest as Frank makes his way through the hospital and back into the city.


	37. Chapter 37

37

It's a strange and bizarre feeling to Frank. The day Krista gets out of the cab and he helps her and little Jon into the apartment. The wails of a hungry newborn. Softly sung lullabies. Big brother curious as ever and asking a million and five questions. The small family moving around him so easily. Strange. 

Zach turns quiet. But only because he's experienced the shrill cries of the baby when he's woken by a loud noise. He loves his little brother, constantly wanting to help. Always at his mothers hip and wanting to see his Jon as much as possible. 

Jäger and Bruce both play less and less. On constant guard and watchful over not just the baby but Zach as well. Snarling at the mailman, growling at delivery kids with Chinese and always ready to attack if simply given a command. They protected their own fiercely. 

And Frank. Was in limbo. He didn't know where the line was. Does he help with the baby? Does he have that right? That privilege? Does he just watch over them like he had been? Simply protecting them and keeping that distance? But he can't keep his distance. He desperately wants to be near them, her. 

Krista calms his mind and heart with one simply question. His fears and worries melting from him at her words. 

"Do you want to hold him?"


	38. Chapter 38

38

Jon is tiny in Frank's hands. It's surreal. Holding a newborn infant. His hands are so gentle and he doesn't know how he's doing it. But he takes the baby from Krista's arms and cradles Jon to his chest. 

Dark eyes look up at him only for a moment before little arms stretching and settles against Frank's chest. His entire arm encasing the baby to him as he reaches and touches a little chubby cheek. He's beautiful, Frank thinks as he watches jobs fingers curl around his thicker forefinger. 

Krista sits on the couch and watches Frank hold her son. Smiles at how marveled the large man is by a tiny baby. She can't enjoy much of the sight, her eyelids droop and she's so tired. Two weeks and she's barely slept at all. Between the dogs and Zach and the baby, she's so strung out. 

A hand on her shoulder, Frank standing over her and tossing a blanket over her frame. She simply closes blue eyes, trusting Frank to watch over them all as she tries to sleep.


	39. Chapter 39

39

Routine just seems to fall into place after that. Krista sleeps in. Frank's does breakfast with Zach. Krista wakes up and feeds Jon. Frank takes the dogs on their morning walk. Frank comes back. They switch off making bottles for Jon, entertaining Zach and nap times. 

They're both exhausted every day and night. Frank doesn't stop his 'work' and she doesn't complain. Only tells him to rest and to stop drinking so much coffee. It still doesn't bother her. And maybe it should, but it doesn't. 

And then Zach finds a knife hidden from somewhere in the house and cuts his hand. The sudden pain filled scream has Frank leaping from his arm chair and feet stomping on the floors until he reaches the hallway upstairs. 

Zach is sitting curled up against the wall beside the small table there. The pocket knife barely two inches long but razor sharp and laying on the ground by his feet. Fat tears rolling down the boys cheeks as he clutched his bloody hand. 

"It's okay buddy com'ere." Frank's picking the boy up and carrying him to the downstairs bathroom quick enough Krista is just now getting to them. 

"What happened?!" Her voice is venomous almost as she hurriedly brings down the medical kit. Not even realizing she doesn't want to go to the hospital out of habit. 

"Found one of my knives." Frank backs away bites his looks at him so scared in that moment he stays put. Watching as Krista cleans Zach's hand and assesses how bad the cut.

It's not deep , won't need stitches. But it hurts and Zach's crying into his mothers arm as she tries to wrap it in gauze one handed. Frank's hands take the tape and gauze and let's her comport her son as he patches Zach up. 

Later Zach is asleep on Krista's lap. Her foot absently rocking the small bassinet where Jon is fast asleep. Frank closes his eyes and scrubs a hand over his curls. 

"I know there's more in the house. I know that you need them there for reassurance. But Frank... He could have really hurt himself badly." He nods at her words. He'll have to rearrange some guns and ammo, hidden weapons in drawers and closets. He forgets sometimes, there's children in the apartment now. 

"Won't happen again." He stands and start to walk away. Shoulders hunched and tense and head hanging low. 

She stops him simply with her voice. "Teach him." He turns his head a fraction, confusion on his face. "Teach him to be careful if he finds them." She cards her hair through Zach's wavy locks. 

"He looks up to you Frank. He hangs on your every word."

"Darlin.."

"Teach him Frank. Or he's gonna get hurt again." 

"Okay."


	40. Chapter 40

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank finally knows what he wants

40

Frank's tired. It's late and he just wants to shower and go get a couple hours of sleep. His boots land gently beside his bed and he takes several moments to close his eyes and let his body relax. 

He's on auto pilot. Grabbing a set of boxers as he heads to the bathroom. Opens the door and stops at the soft shriek of surprise.

Fuck. This is Krista's bathroom... Not his. 

"Frank?!" She's holding the shower curtain to her body. Fuck, and it's clear pink and hiding hardly nothing and he can't. Fucking. Look. Away. 

"Uhh.." He can't say a word for several seconds. The waters spraying from the opening in the curtain to the tiled floor. Staring at her.

His body is alive and blood is pumping faster then it had taking down those drug king pins a few nights back. Staring at her full body hidden barely behind the shower curtain. 

"Frank..?" His eyes snap up to meet baby blue, a darker shade forming in her eyes at she looks back at him. She stands a bit taller, her grip loosening on the curtain. Not a fraction of fear on her face.

It's like he can't think. But his body moves and suddenly he's at the shower. Peeling back the curtain more and she lets him. Doesn't even try to hold back the thin plastic, only reaches to turn the shower head so the floor isn't soaked in water. Eyes never leaving his.

It's the first time he's seen her like this. Nearly nine months around this young woman and he's never seen so much of her skin. 

She's still got the baby weight on her belly and hips. It just serves that she's healthy and a mother. Just makes it easier for him to reach out and smooth his hand over her hip. Tug her against his chest and touch her lips in his own. 

"Frank.." Her wet skin clings to his now damp and blood covered shirt. Her hands tugging up the sides and he lets her. Nearly ripping it off just so could latch his lips onto her neck. 

"Fuck.." His hands work quickly and down go his jeans and boxers in their damp state. Steps into the shower. Tugs the curtain closed and steam and heat and water surround them. 

He's caging her in. Her back pressed against cool wet tiles as his hands splay on either side of her shoulders. His hair damp and curls hanging in his eyes and face as he stares at her. Takes in the beauty she is, the youth she exudes. 

"Fuckin gorgeous..." He leans in sand captures her lisp again. Groans when she reaches up and tugs on his hair for him to kiss her deeper, so he does. Presses his hips against hers instinctually as she whimpers and gasps for breath. 

"Frank.." He can hear that neediness in her tone. Feel the way she's clutching onto him timidly, not sure if he wants it. He's not sure either, but he's not gonna stop. 

He leans back a bit, slips his hands over her cheeks to hold her face. Thumbs tracing over her cheekbones as he smiles gently down at her. He's not sure, but something feels...right. 

Holding her. In this moment he's not a thought to be dead crazy ex marine serial killer. She's not a barely into her twenties mother. She's just a healthy beautiful woman, and he's a normal man. Who finally knows what he wants.


	41. Chapter 41

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all wanted it. Here's the smut

41

Her breathing is ragged. Gasping, heavy into his neck as he moves them both. It's like he's a nervous teen all over again. Constantly making sure she's okay. Always catching her eyes, when they're open, to make sure there's no hidden pain or discomfort there. She did just have a baby a few weeks ago. 

His hands are tight on her thighs, keeping her pinned to the tiled wall of the shower as he powers into her. She's so damn light, he doesn't even have to really lift her. And the way she clings to him makes it just that much easier to hold her there against him. 

"Frannnk." It's a pleading sound, her back arching, breasts pressed against him. Slick and wet and warm from the hot water coursing over them. 

"I gotcha." Her nails dig sharply into the back of his neck and hairline. Making him hiss and groan, his hips to buck sharply into her. Both of them gasping at the movement. 

She's tight and molten heat surrounds him. He's not going to last much longer, too much stimulation after so long a period of celibacy and his body no longer reacting like it should. He's surprised he hasn't finished already, till he hears her moans of pleasure in his ear and smirks into her shoulder. He's holding back for her. Lady's first. 

Frank leans back, tossing his head to the side quickly just to get the heavy, wet dark curls from his face. He wants to watch her. The way she gasps and bites her bottom lip. Her nails scraping at his neck and her thighs tense around his hips. She's beautiful, riding him like she is.

"Come on lil momma, come on." He grunts, changing his angle and quickens his pace. Using his strength to lift her up and back down onto him. Watches as she lets out a soft string of curse words and lays her head back on the tile. 

"Look at me." And she does, snapping her baby blues open to meet his and he groans at the look of pure want and hunger lingering there. 

She cries out his name like a prayer and his whole world explodes. Colors flash behind his eyes, his knees lock tight and his grip turns near bruising on her thighs as he roars gently into her neck. His teeth find purchase and he can't stop the urge to bite down on her soft flesh. To mark her while washed over with pure bliss. 

After that it's soft touches. Sweet lips to wet skin as he helps her to her feet. Holding her against his chest on her unsteady legs. Grabs body wash and the fluffy pink and blue loofah, suds roaming down her body as she lays her head on his chest. Nearly asleep as he washes them quickly. The water turning cool and making her body shiver under the spray. 

Towel wrapped loosely around her he just picks her up. Smiles at her small gasp of surprise and carries her to her bed. It's easy, sliding under the cool soft sheets with her. Cradling her against his chest as she quickly passes out. 

His lips touch her temple and a lone tear falls. He looks out the window to the light of the city. 

Goodbye Maria


	42. Chapter 42

42

Wails and whimpering wakes them both up. Little Jon in his bassinet by the bed is hungry at the break of dawn. Frank sees how Krista barely registers the baby's cries. She's exhausted. So he scrubs a hand over his face and picks the baby up. 

"Shh, gotcha Jonny." His arm cradles the squirming baby against his chest as he shimmies on boxers. Jon still whimpers but the crying stops as Frank makes his way into the hall. 

On habit he walks by Zach's room. The little boy is still asleep. Bruce's big black and brown head perking up, bobbed tail wagging gently as Frank smiles at the sight. 

Jäger joins him going down the stairs. Claws clicking on the wood floors, wide jaw happily panting and watching Frank make a bottle one handed. The little newborn quieting and yawning. Opening dark eyes up at Frank. 

"Hey." Frank smiles down at the baby. He's small and fragile and Frank's arms instinctively wants to tighten. "Hungry little guy?" He chuckles at the way Jon squirms the second the bottle gets near. Little mouth latching onto the rubber nipple. 

"Easy, easy." Frank settles into the arm chair. Jon in his arm as he holds the bottle for the infant. His foot gently tapping the ground to make the chair rock slightly. 

Jäger lays down beside the chair, short tail wagging every time he gets a glimpse of the tiny human. Or when Frank talks to him gently, he likes it when he's a good boy. 

Bottle nearly gone Jon starts to hiccup and Frank moves easily. Places the infant on his shoulder and oats gently. Waits for the soft burp and the little spittle that comes with newborns when they burp. It's all part of life. 

His hands grab a baby cloth from the edge of the coffee table where Krista had started to fold laundry the night before. Wipes at his shoulder and the baby's face. Frank keeps rocking the chair slowly and before he blinks it seems Jon is asleep on Frank's bare chest. 

Frank scrubs a hand over his tired eyes and takes a deep long breath. The sky lighting up with the rise of the sun. Newborn on his chest, Pitt at his side. Frank felt good. 

He didn't like it, good meant something bad was around the corner. He just hopes it lasts awhile longer. He's so tired...

Krista finds him like that for breakfast a little while later. Nearly bringing her to years how simply beautiful it was to see Frank hold her son so protectively. It warmed her heart.


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know I get more comments when asked what to write next then i do on the actual chapters.

43

"Krista... Baby I think you're gonna suffocate the little guy." Frank's chuckling as she dresses little Jon. It's a chilly late spring day and windy as hell. They need groceries and Frank won't let her go alone, so...

Little Jon is wearing two sweaters a coat and a two little hats on top of that. A thick blanket over top of him and mittens. Not to mention the many socks on his little feet. 

"Just.." She sighs and scrubs a hand over her face. "Shut up Frank."

"He'll be fine darlin, don't need all of that." He smiles as she relents and takes some of the layers off. But not all. Looks to Zach and smirks a little. He's bundled up too. 

Frank chuckles again and tugs her up to her feet, kisses her temple and hugs her to his side. He reaches up and grips her chin lightly. 

"They'll be fine lil momma." She smiled and conceads defeat. Smacking his hand away playfully and picking up Jon. Carefully settling the baby into this weird cloth slung around her shoulder and chest. Krista calls it a swaddle blanket or some weird shit like that. Whatever it was, the baby liked it. 

"You know I'm still on the fence about that name." She snarks at him playfully, he can see the mirth in her eyes and he likes the scene she sets. Standing there with her baby, her first borns hand in hers. 

He smiles and doesn't answer. Instead folding down his hood over his face and tugging the strings a bit. Places a hand at the small of her back and leads them outside and into the chilly city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should a gang lord find out he's alive? Matt Murdock want Frank to turn himself in and leave Krista? Or do we go totally off kilter,suggestions?


	44. Chapter 44

44

Last thing they expected to see outside the apartment, sitting on the front steps. Was Matt Murdock in civilian clothes and the ever present rounded sunglasses on his face. 

Frank's entire body tenses and Krista reacts to it. Holding Jon closer to her chest and tugging Zach half behind her. Frank's arms are full of plastic bags but he'd drop it all in an instant if needed. 

"Murdock." He greets the blind man and Matt stands. Cane unfolding as he does. Frank and he both know he doesn't need it, but Krista doesn't. 

"Frank. Can we talk." It's not really a question. Frank knew it was coming so he huffs out a sigh, unlocks the door and ushers Krista and the boys inside before he turns to Matt. 

"Come on in." Matt follows them inside, his senses taking in the apartment. And his ears hearing the snarling growls of two very large dogs. 

He stays in the doorway. Door latches behind him and he stays still. Knowing the dogs are trained but this is their home turf, they may not listen to commands. 

"Heel." Krista's soft voice sounds and it goes quiet, clicking claws on wood toward her as she stands near the kitchen. Still protectively holding her sons close to her. 

"Mr. Murdock." She politely says but Frank can see the tense way her shoulders are. He sets the groceries down and places his palm at her hip. 

"Mrs. Reyes." She visibly flinches at the last name. Frank touches his lips to her hair. 

"I'll be back, stay inside." She only nods, not keeping her glare from the man across from her. Something about Matt Murdock made her uneasy. 

"No I'd like to speak to you both, if that's alright." Krista turned to look at Frank, using him as guidance, reassurance. 

She knew Matt Murdock the lawyer was looking for Frank. Knew he was alive. The situation they find themselves in suddenly is like opening the curtain. They've been living in their own world, not really paying attention to anything else. 

Frank kneels to the ground and gently holds Zach's arms. "Hey little man, got to talk 'big talk' for a while. Think you can take Bruce to your room and play till I come get ya?" 

Zach nods easily, too young to feel the tension in the room. Little feet running up the steps with Bruce at his side. Krista simply sits on the couch, Frank beside her, and gently takes off Jon's thick sweater so the baby stops his fussing. 

"What do you want Murdock?" Frank asks the blind man who still stands in the entryway. 

He owes Matt a debt since Krista went into labor. Knows this is possibly what he's here for. His hands lays on Krista's thigh to sooth her tense muscles beside him and to ease some of his protective side.

"They know you're alive." 

Frank tensed beside Krista. 

"Which ones."

"All of them. Whispers in alleys and on the streets in the kitchen. You haven't exactly slowed down on your attacks Frank." Matt moved forward to lean his shoulder against the archway into the living room. 

"Word is they're teaming up, want you dead. For real this time." 

Frank stood, started pacing behind the couch, hands in his too long dark hair. Mind crazy with ideas, plans, names. 

"I'm pretty hard to kill Red." He stands behind Krista, hands on either side of her on the back of the couch as he glares at Matt. 

"Yeah, you are." Matt stands straight. "But she's not."


	45. Chapter 45

45

Frank's over the couch and across the room in a half second. His hand reaching for Matt's throat but the blind man sidesteps and dodges the next few kicks and punches. 

"Frank!" Matt sidesteps again and barely misses the knife to the throat. But Frank does stop, heavy breathing and deadly glare at the other man. 

"You threatening her?" Frank snarled at Matt, knife tight in his grip. 

"No Frank, I'm not." Matt kept calm, knew Frank was a loose cannon at times like this. "But they're looking for her now too."

Frank stills, steps back slowly and looks over his should to see Krista holding Jon close to her chest. Fear in her eyes at what Matt was saying. 

"Her old place? Burnt to the ground a couple days ago. The bar she worked in a few weeks before that."

"Fuck!!" Frank sheathes the blade that's in his hand and starts pacing again, hands in his hair. 

"They're searching the Kitchen. It's a man hunt over there for you and her. And when they can't find her there they're going to start looking into other neighborhoods." Matt stood from his crouch, ignoring his lack of cane to move out of Frank's pacing steps. 

Krista stands and makes her way to Frank, Matt reaching out to stop her. She turns and a near snarl is on her lips. He relents and let's the mother go to Frank. 

Her hand reaches out to grasp gently at his jacket. Stopping his movements with a soft touch and she's wrapped in his arms the next moment. 

"I think you should leave the city." Matt suggests gently as he watches Frank calm down from the raging demon he was becoming. 

"What?" His head lifts up from checking on little Jon to stare at the blind man. 

"Leave, Frank. Soon. Or they'll find her." Matt picks up his cane and leaves the apartment without another word.


	46. Chapter 46

46

Frank refused to leave the house for days after that. Only taking the dogs on much shorter walks, just around the block. And nothing else. He was a wreck, and they all could see it. 

Zach became quieter then ever. If he watched tv he turned it down or on mute. If he played downstairs he was silent and didn't make messes. He was reverting into the boy he was when Donny was around. And Krista hated it. 

Little Jon was growing quickly. He was a good baby, didn't fuss much and was fairly quiet. But now when Frank held him, his sense of emotions gets to him and he fusses. Yet clings to Frank as if he would leave. Krista's scared he might. 

Jäger doesn't leave Frank's side. Has left his usual playfulness and smiling face somewhere. He's constantly ready to attack anything that comes toward the door. Krista has no fear he'd attack the boys or her, but it's not the jäger she raised from a puppy. 

Frank is just... A prowling beast. Stalking his den with a possessive gait. A constant snarl on his lips and his eyes bloodshot and wide as he watched for any danger that could or would present itself. She's worried about his health.

He hadn't slept a full night in a long while. But now he was barely dozing. Constantly waking up at the slightest sound from outside. He wrapped himself around Krista at night. Keeping her safely in his arms and against his chest. Always touching her. 

Like now. It's late. The winds howling through the city. Rattling window panes and lightning flashes in the distance. Signaling an oncoming storm. He's hovering over her panting form. Lips locked to hers so she doesn't cry out and wake Jon. 

His hips moving slow and powerful against her own. Her legs locked around his hips as he palms her thighs and holds her there while he moves them. It's slow moving, building her up and back down many times since they started. 

She's breathless, shaking against him. Her nails scratching down his back and he sucks a mark to her collarbone in retaliation. Loving the way her breath hitches and stuttered as she climbs close to that edge again. Barely conscious after so long at it, he's surprised she hasn't passed out yet. 

"Frank..." Her voice is scratchy, like her throat is filled with sandpaper. His lips find her throat, that little space just under her ear and she arches into him with a whine. Her body squeezing him like crazy and he can't stop the grunt coming from his lips. 

He lifts her hips, holds her thighs wider and changes his angle. A few more pumps and she's gone, a breathless silent scream on her lips as she arches into him. His release is just as quiet, worried about waking the sleeping baby near them as he pants out into her neck. 

Lips pepper her neck and she spit moments later. Too strung out and exhausted for her to do much else but kiss him back gently when his lips found hers. Then pass out and her body go lax against him. 

Frank leans back, brushes sweaty locks of her blonde hair back. Looks over the blooming marks on her neck and collarbone. The one inside her left thigh. How her skin glows with a thin layer of sweat and her naked chest rise and fall with deep even breaths. 

His lips find hers once more. She's too tired to notice, too out of it. He climbs from the bed, reaching down into the bassinet to tug Jon's blanket back up from where little feet have kicked it off. 

Krista wakes to a fussy baby. Jäger's soft whimpers and a sense of loss and emptiness. She carries Jon through the apartment, Frank's not here. His room is cleaned of weapons and an envelope on the bed. 

Shaking hands open the white paper. Stacks of hundreds fall out of the wide envelope into the black sheets and pillows. 

-Get out of the city. I'll find you, I promise.-


	47. Chapter 47

47

She doesn't know what to do. She's scared shitless and crying to no end and doesn't know what to do! Her hands are trembling as she holds a rumpled business card in one hand and her cell phone in the other. 

Krista glances at Zach on the chair, Frank's chair. Curled up with jäger and looking so distraught and alone. His baby blues tear filled as he holds Jäger's neck. Bruce's ears pulled back and trying to make the little boy smile. Jon's little sniffling as he blinks up at her from the carrier in front of her. 

She closes her eyes and hits send, bites and chews on her thumb nail as it rings and rings. Prays to god someone answers. Prays he answers. 

"Murdock and Nelson, attorneys at law, can I help you?" Krista's speechless for a few seconds before she clears her throat. 

"I need to speak with Mr. Murdock please, it's, it's an emergency."

"Can I ask who's calling?" 

She's silent for a few more seconds that feel like hours. Her grip is tight on the crumpled card in her hand. 

"Krista Castiglione." 

Some shuffling, a click on the line and then a door shutting with a soft latch. 

"Krista?"

And it all comes over her. Wracking sobs and whimpers as she tries to tell Matt what happened. "He's-he's- he's gone! He he he he - just left last n-n-n-night and and he's g-g-g-gone...."

"Krista take a deep breath okay, I need you to calm down.." He waits for her breathing and sniffling to calm. 

"He's gone... Matt he's gone."

"I know, I know. Did he leave you a note? Anything?" She stares at the cash in front of her on the coffee table. Enough to buy a small house, car. Anything she could need for a very, very long while. 

"Just a note, he said to leave the city." She doesn't go any further, doesn't give anymore details. Because she doesn't trust Matt to the fullest. But she's got no one to turn to with Frank gone. 

"Shit.." Matts silent for a few seconds. "I'm gonna send over Karren okay Krista? She's gonna help you pack and get a car."

"But.. Matt I can't just leave! What if he comes home and he's hurt?! What if he-he needs help?!" She's starting to panic and breath hard, Bruce's big head by her knee keeping her somewhat stable. 

"Yes you can and you will Krista. Think about your boys, okay? You got to keep them safe. And if Frank thinks you should leave the city then you need to leave, now." 

Matt knew it, felt it. Saw it in the way the city was drenched in torrential warm rain and screaming winds. A war was coming, a storm. And Frank would be at the helm. Krista couldn't be part of that. 

So he sent over Karren and sends Foggy out to get Krista a good nondescript car. And Matt, Matt goes out on a manhunt for Frank castle. He goes looking for the Punisher.


	48. Chapter 48

48

Her hands are shaking. They haven't seemed to stop actually. Not since she woke up and found him gone. Karen stands in the doorway looking at her with such pity, it makes her tears fall heavy down her cheeks and chin. 

"Oh honey..." Karen whispers and comes inside, wrapping the younger woman in her arms. Holding her tight as her sobs wrack through her small body. "Shhh it's alright."

There's no consoling the sobbing woman and Karen is almost at a loss. Until a giant head of a grey blue Pitt bull is sniffing at her before snuggling into Krista's side. The woman seems to deflate, her tears don't stop but the heavy sobs and gasping does. 

"Come on honey, we gotta move." Karen gets the younger woman up and moving despite the way she's shaking and still crying. 

She can't fathom what Krista is feeling but she can assume and guess. She can sight the loss and helplessness in blue eyes and it pains her to see it in a woman so young. Can see the way the little boy stays out of his mothers way and plays gently with the infant so he wouldn't stop the frantic packing. 

Krista stops her from going into the third bedroom. Takes an empty duffle bag from Karen's hands and goes in alone, closes the door behind her. It's a half hours later and she struggles to carry the heavy bag, but doesn't let Karen help her with it. It's bulky and won't zip completely. Karen catches the glint of a pistol and frowns, lets Krista carry it down and to the front door. Doesn't say a damn thing. 

A knock at the door and both of Krista's dogs are at attention, snarling and waiting for someone to try and barge in. But Karen watches and with a soft hand motion both of them step back as Krista opens the door. 

"Miss Castiglione?" She nods and Karen sighs thankfully. Foggy's here. 

"It's okay, this is Foggy Nelson, he works with Matt." Krista only nods and lets the man inside the door, latching it behind him. 

He hands her a set of keys and clasps her hands in his gently as he does so. "It's safe, no trace and blends in. And the windows are tinted." She doesn't know what to say, only tightens her grip on his hands back for a moment in silent thank you. 

She's packed and loaded in minutes. Everything of value and enough clothes to last them are in the trunk. An overflowing baby bag and diaper bag filled and put in the back floorboard. The half full bag of dog food on the trunk and handmade bowls with Zach's clumsy writing of their names beside it. Dogs leashed, Jon in his green and blue car seat and Zach zipping up his Jurassic park hoodie. 

She looks from Karen to Foggy, has no words that come to her lips. So she reaches out and hugs them both tightly as she can, gives them both a small smile and loads up the car with all of her boys. The car vanishes into the fray of city traffic as Karen and Foggy watch from the doorstep. 

"Think she'll be alright?" Foggy asks as they hail a cab. 

"Not until he comes for her." 

"What if he doesn't?"

Karen looks to the cloudy grey sky and lightening strikes. "Let's hope that he does."


	49. Chapter 49

49

It's been a week. 

A week. 

Days run into the other and Krista's exhausted. Running on autopilot. 

She's driven for hours and hours. Five states away in Tennessee now, and yet it feels like she's on the moon. Lights years away from where she wants to be. 

Baby Jon is just not a happy baby right now. He desperately wants Frank because the man, since Jon was born, has given him his last bottle and rocked him to sleep in the big easy chair. Every night. 

He's fussy and constantly whimpering. And the only time he's calm is when Krista lays one of Frank's shirts inside the car seat with Jon. It breaks her heart. 

"Mommy?" Zach tugs on her sleeve and Krista comes back to reality with a sharp snap. The motel room around them. The cheap laptop on the desk humming gently. Pages of apartments and rentals pulled up. Numbers scrawled down on a little hotel pad. 

"Yeah baby." She scrubs a hand over her tired face, still smiles and gathers her son into her arms and up onto her lap. 

"I miss Frank." She closes her eyes and hugs Zach a little tighter. 

"I do too baby." Her voice cracks a little bit. Fights back the tears wanting to fall. She's so tired of crying.


	50. Chapter 50

50

"Jonny please baby, please." The tiny infant is screaming at the top of his lungs. A fever coursing through his little body and Krista is nearly at her wits end. 

Two am and Jon hasn't slept in nearly a full day. She's too scared to leave and go to the corner store for medicine. She's not supposed to have the dogs in this motel room. Worried someone will out her and she'd have to drive another hour to get to another one. 

Finally Jon is so exhausted he passes out into sleep, Krista running her hands over her face and sighing out heavily. Her baby's sick and she needs to find a place to stay, needs to find a doctor for Jon. Zach needs his flu shot and both dogs are ready for their rabies. 

She looks at her boys. All of them. Zach sleeping on the bed, Bruce curled around the small boy and alert as always. Jäger at her feet and watching Jon sleep in her arms as she stroke between his ears. 

She needs Frank. Needs him badly. 

Krista hoes to open the news app on her phone. Thumb hovering over the screen but she stops. She doesn't want to read the headlines that could be there. The ones where Frank is gone and buried and she just can't.


	51. Chapter 51

51

Two months.

Krista found a nice cabin rental in the mountains an hour from Gatlinburg. She's got nearly an acre of woods around her that's fenced in. Perfect for Zach and the dogs both to run and play. 

A cute little two story wood building nestled into the mountainside. Log siding over every inch and a wrap around porch. The trees and hills block out the sound of the freeway nearby and it feels like you're settled deep in the mountainside. Instead of ten minutes form the closest Walmart. 

It doesn't feel like home. No matter how quiet the woods are, it's not the constant noise and traffic of the city. But it's calm here, she's not constantly in fear of not only her life but her boys. And people here adore her dogs instead of sneering down because of their breed. 

The car Foggy Nelson found for her isn't big enough so she trades it in. Pays cash and the car as a downpayment on a used Pontiac Aztec. Plenty of room for all her boys and...

She can't even think about him anymore. It rips her heart in two. The sound of the name Frank just about kills her. And she smiles and tries to put on a happy face but it's not real. 

At night, once the boys are asleep and she's alone until Jon's next bottle. She sits in her bed and holds a wadded up black hoodie in her arms. It's scented of gunpowder and men's body shampoo. Irish spring and mint toothpaste. 

Her hand shakes and she holds her phone. There's really no sense in it honestly. No one would know the number except him. And maybe Matt now. But she holds it to her, constantly wishing it would ring and she'd hear that deep scratchy baritone she'd grown to love and rely on. 

But it's silent and she wants to scream and throw it aside. Bash it to hundreds of pieces with her fists and feet. But what would the good in that do. It won't make him appear. Won't make him call or text. Won't make him suddenly show up at her door.


	52. Chapter 52

52

Jon's growing so much. He's seven months now. A squirmy, giggling little baby boy who adores his big brother and loves it when the dogs come up and snuffle at him. 

Light brown eyes always glancing around, taking in what he can. Little craning neck always turning to every sound he hears. The little tuft of blonde hair on his head soft. 

Krista writes to Frank. Simple letters that never go in the mail or have a stamp put in the corner. Sometimes they're short. Just the events of the day. Sometimes they're pages long, pleading with him to come back, to be safe. 

Simple box kept in the desk by the couch. Filling every day with the things she wishes she could say to him. How much she misses him. How Zach always asks when he's coming back and how she doesn't know what to say. How the dogs aren't nearly as happy as they were with him around. 

How much she loves him.


	53. Chapter 53

53

Blood everywhere. Medical tools set aside dripping in the crimson color. Blue towels scattered about. An unconscious criminal being wheeled back to a room. Two guards on either side with assault rifles. One inside to watch the window. 

Frank castle was alive. But just barely. 

Four shots to the torso. Multiple stitches holding tower her his organs. Two shots in the left leg. The other barely held together now with a stint and screws. A drill having gone through to the bone and almost severing it in half. Countless bone fractures removed from inside of him. 

A broken nose, shattered jaw and his left eyes was, for lack of better words. Fucked up. Deep gashes over his temple and shoulders. Hands so bloodied his knuckles were fray to the bone in places. 

Not to mention the six busted ribs. Two of which needed to be stunted and screwed back together. 

Frank Castle is alive. And the underground of New York isn't happy about it.


	54. Chapter 54

54

"Dammit Castle, give it up." Matt tries to quietly talk to Frank in the hospital room. He's trying to get the man to leave before he dies in this suicide mission of his. 

"Gotta finish this." His voice is rough, cracked, exhausted. Probably hasn't slept for weeks or months now. Living on coffee and whiskey.

"Frank, you're going to get yourself killed." Matt sighs and scrubs at the back of his neck. Ruffling his short dark hair. 

"So be it." 

"Really? Just like that?" Matt's about had it with this idiot. 

"Yeah, just like that." Frank looks so beaten down laying in that hospital bed. Officers outside the door and so busted up you can barely recognize his face. 

"You're stupid." Frank snorts, grimacing at how it hurts. How everything hurts no matter what he does. 

"Gonna leave her all alone? Huh? That baby? Both of her boys?" Frank stills as Matt talks, low enough none can hear them. 

"She's safe."

"For how long Frank? For how long?" 

"She's fine without me."

"She's in misery without you." Matt stands and grabs his cane, half tempted to thwack Frank with it. "You're either going to prison, with Fisk. Or you get out of here like I'm trying to help you with, and go to her."

"She don't need me Red."

Matt sighs and looks at Frank. "She may or may not, I don't know. What I do know? Is you need her."


	55. Chapter 55

55

Krista tiredly rubs at her eyes. Zach and Jon both down for the night, so far. And the dogs sleeping gently on the couch they're not allowed on. Laundry baskets around the coffee table as she sips some coffee and tries to stay awake. She's got to get caught up somehow. 

With the weather as nice as it is here in the mountains, Zach is constantly wanting to go outside and play. And while that's fine, Krista is totally against leaving her son alone. Even though the fence is sturdy and strong, she's not doing it. She's mother-henning, too protective. But she's got good reason for it. 

She's long since stopped carrying that phone everywhere with her. What's the point when not a soul has called it since she left New York. She does keep it charged though and within hearing distance in her little cabin. 

Because wouldn't it just be uncanny for it to ring out of nowhere? 

Krista jumps at the shrill sound. The ringing, like an old telephone, coming from the device on the desk feet from her. And she just stares for a second before reaching over and picking it up, thumb swiping over the screen. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey darlin."


	56. Chapter 56

56

"I'm comin home darlin." His voice is rough, tired. Heavy with an exhaustion she's never heard in him before. Her heart breaks at the sound of it. 

"Frank.." And that's all she can say. Whisper his name with so much emotion. All that fear and grief thinking he was dead already. Hope that he's alive and will come back to her. 

"Shh, don't cry baby please. Please." And she can't help it, the sobs she's barely holding back by biting into her knuckles. 

"Don't worry, Red's helping me get outta here."

"When?"

"Real soon, got one more job to do. One more kill. And I'm comin home lil momma."


	57. Chapter 57

57

She's a nervous wreck now. 

The number he called from was disconnected. Another burner phone she imagines. 

The dogs can feel it. Feel her agitation and her nervousness. That somethings up. That somethings changing. 

Zach can too, watches the way his mother constantly looks out the window. Biting her nails and pacing instead of rocking Jon to sleep. 

"Mommy?"

"Hmm? Yes baby?"

"Is... It Frank comin back?"

"I think so baby."


	58. Chapter 58

58

Weeks pass. She thinks it might have been a dream. A sleep deprived dream of hearing his voice. Telling her he's coming back. 

But the number is still there. Still disconnected. Still in her phone as unknown. But there all the same. 

She's doing mundane things. Grocery shopping. Taking small hikes around the woods by her house. Watching Zach play with the dogs outside. Seeing Jon grow more and more everyday. Laundry. Dishes. Cooking. Living. 

Wishing every day that she would wake up and he'd be there at her front door. And every morning he's not. So she just keeps going, taking care of her boys. All four of them. 

All four of her boys missing Frank just as much as she did. Zach. Staring at the driveway for long minutes. Jon refusing to sleep unless snuggled to one of Frank's old shirts Krista had taken with her. 

Bruce and Jäger both staring at the easy chair in the living room. Brand new, never sat in. Just there, by the window. Waiting for a heavy frame to sit down and relax.


	59. Chapter 59

59

"Zach! Baby stay away from the shed!" Krista yells out at her son. The little boy scuffing his feet on the grass and then running back from the small shed. It had a nasty nest of wasps inside and so far she hadn't had time to clear it out. Didn't actually know how to in fact. 

She's humming softly to Jon in her arms. He's sucking hungrily on his afternoon bottle. He's starting to eat more solid foods but he still needs the vitamins from the formula. Little tuft of chestnut hair on his head growing out more and more. 

"Mommy look what I found." Zach pushing a very dirty clump of well, dirt, to her free hand. 

"What is it?" She rubs some of the dirt clumps off and finally finds what's under the dirt. An old cracked arrowhead. 

"Look at that baby, it's an arrow head." Zach gave her a quizzical look and she smiles. "Come on, I think I have a book about them inside."

Forty minutes later and Zach is back outside, little garden shovel in hand trying to find more arrowheads in the yard. Krista rolling her eyes and sighing at the tiny holes popping up everywhere in the grass. 

When a truck pulls into the driveway.


	60. Chapter 60

60

Her whole world stops on its axis. The trees no longer move to the breeze blowing. The leaves halt their dance over the pavement and yard. Dogs frozen and alert as the door of the truck opens up. Booted feet hit the ground gently. 

His head is shaved. Beard gone. A nasty burn make over the side of his face and it's hard telling how many new scars riddle his body. She can see the limp in his walk, subtle, but it's there. Disrupting the strength of his legs with the awkwardness to turn his thigh. She can see the bandages thick under jeans. 

Jon held tight to her chest. Squirming in the uncomfortable hold and whimpering out his displeasure. Zach holding onto her pants leg so tightly the little boy may rip the fabric on her flesh. 

It's Jäger that makes the first move. Bursting into a dead run toward the truck and nearly knocking the man down. Too excited to do anything but wriggle and whine high pitched to be petted. 

And it's like a fast forward button was pushed. Bruce doing the same and whimpering helplessly. Zach taking off at a dead run. She stands frozen still as Zach is picked up and placed on a strong hip. Thick arms wrap around her son .

"Hey lil momma, I'm home."


	61. Chapter 61

61

"Frank?" She asks it like it's a dream. Him standing there like that. Holding Zach to his side. Dogs barking happily at his feet. Looking at her with a bit of concern but so much love. He's hurt, still is by the way he favors one leg. But he's here.

She can't run, not with Jon in her arms but she does the fastest power walk in her fucking life. Nearly stumbling as she reaches him and his arm wraps so tight around her back. Encasing her into his chest as she openly starts crying into his neck. 

"Hey hey, easy." She's sobbing loudly and can't catch her breath but Frank's already moving. Setting down Zach to lean against his leg as he wraps both his arms around her smaller frame. Careful of the baby between them. 

"You're back.... You're back." She's gasping for breath. Looking up with watery eyes as he strokes his thumbs over her cheek to wipe away the tears. His own eyes wanting to copy her own. 

"I promised." His own voice is thick, cracks a bit seeing her in the flesh after so long away from her. And even crying and sniffling, she's the most beautiful things his seen in years.

She chuckles a bit and leans her forehead to his chest, adjusting Jon more to her hip and smiling as Frank reacts. He blinks and a smile crawls over his face, big hand reaching to touch Jon's chubby cheek. 

"Gettin big on me Jonny boy."

Wiping at her tear streaked face she shuffles Jon's blanket and hands him to Frank. Knowing he wants to hold Jon again but never was going to ask. 

Gentle as anything Frank takes the baby from her arms. Bounces him lightly and smiles as Jon attempts to clap his hands together. Toothless smile toward Frank as little hands grab onto his dark shirt and jacket. 

Frank takes a deep breath. Taking in the scent of the woods around them. Zach's hand gripping onto his pants leg. Krista against his side. Little baby safe in his arms. 

And everything he's done makes it worth it now. All the pain was worth it. 

He was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it everyone. I feel like this is the end of Krista's story. Thank you all for staying with me, staying with the story, and commenting such wonderful things. 
> 
> Maybe I'll add some more later but for now this is the end of this story. Thank you all again. 
> 
> The Beast

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are Love
> 
> Comments are Life


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